In the Ashes of War -SYOC-
by chronoman
Summary: In the aftermath of the Great War, the King of Vale establishes the first Huntsmen Academy: Beacon Academy. Students from across the kingdoms are invited to attend and become the future protectors of Remnant. But with old war wounds, distrust, and villainy at every corner, can the inaugural class really survive and prove this to be a success? -SYOC- Submissions Closed
1. Prologue

Prologue

" _It is over, it is done, but was it all worth it? Was this really what we wanted? I can't count my brothers and sisters, of both humans and faunus, among the bodies, among those who I saw buried. Their bodies not in the caskets but lost on the battlefield. It didn't matter if it was Vacuo, or Vale, Mistral or Mantle, I visited them all. Good men, sons, daughters, fathers and mothers I saw laid to rest. Too early in their lives were they taken from us, too late was I to fix the mistakes taken by my predecessor. I begged him time and time again to cease his foolhardiness and just accept his loss, but all that did was land me in a cell. His majesty thought of me like a convict, like the scum he vowed to protect his people from. For years I sat in my cage continually writing and sending out messages of hope to the outside world, or at least the outside of Mantle. Then, one day I'm told it's all over, from one view I understand that we lost, from the other point of view though I think I won. Time will only tell if this new path we all walk upon will be worth it, if his majesty of the southern land knows what he is doing. I am but a simple historian, so I cannot look into the future, it is not my job, I can only say I have never seen what is being done from the past."_

 _-Excerpt from a former advisor to the King of Mantle, shortly after Mantle's formal declaration of surrender_

The landscape of Vale was different than Carbine had remembered being told from his buddies who fought in The War, the two years that it had been since the Vytal Accords had allowed the supposed dirt mounds and holes from cannon fire to become natural pots and homes for the flowers to sit in and enjoy the sun. The sky didn't seem so dirty and unclean, like he had been told, no smoke pillars and no stench of blood that filled and plugged the nostrils. No wretched smell of Dust from rifles or infused weapons, with it being a flat land with no trees or major mountains he could see for miles. He stepped forward to hear the soft folding of grass beneath his dark grey militaristic boots, when he stepped he felt something hard and unyielding crease into the sole of his foot, moving the dirt revealed a piece of armor. It looked like a shoulder pad, the grass and dirt leaving it in a messy state. It was probably a shining metal at one point, but whenever the soldier who wore it fell in battle it was forgotten like so many other things in the war. This was his first time in Vale, for Carbine it was, this is where The War started. Obviously he wasn't that far out near the coast but it was the idea of the continent and the kingdom he was standing that he thought more on. Here it was the his brethren and enemies spilled each other's blood and, at times when the grimm came, fought alongside one another. Carbine found it a titch odd when he asked about that provision. To fight alongside your enemies only to fight against them right after. One of his buddies said he met this girl from Vacuo he was fighting and had it been a different time in a different place he would have asked her out. But she didn't even make it out of the grimm incursion.

Inspecting the armor piece again, it appeared a gunmetal grey, which coincidentally matched the coloring of the jacket he had been wearing. While predominantly white in, starting from the shoulders down the sleeves in a straight line were these dark grey lines. His jacket was well worn in some places, the cuffs on the sleeves were the best example while the hood that had once been there was no completely ripped off. It made an odd lopsided collar for him that descended from his right shoulder to his left. His white hair was kept short but spiked in the front, the sides shaven to a miniscule height in case he was to be called into service. Never happened though, how was he supposed to know he signed up in the last three months of The War?

After a few tries he eventually found a way to mount the armor piece onto his left shoulder, he thought it went perfect with his worn white jacket and grey camo pants that were tucked into his combat boots. As he finished fidgeting with the armor piece he had to reorient his shoulders and get a better grip on his weapon that rested on his right shoulder. A bayonet with the wood painted white, small flecks of the paint have been stripped away showing the brown wood. The metal lining the barrel and all the parts for functioning were a dark grey metal that give off the feel of a grimy and industrial home. The blade of his bayonet though was inches from the barrels going in the opposite direction for common sense, at the length and that far back wouldn't even stab a insect. Defective it seemed, but the barrely was marked with the obvious soot of live fire.

Pulling a hand up to shield his brown eyes from the sun, it wasn't unbearable by normal standards, but those from Mantle find this kind of heat to be miserable. He was glad the King's letter asked to come to Vale and not Vacuo, he heard all about that place, the 'Sand Pit' as he heard it referred to by his buddies. They always complained about the way the sand always managed to get in places that shouldn't have been possible. As Carbine thought more about them, the more he wished they were here, but he knew why they couldn't come. He knew why some didn't want to come, for some the wounds haven't healed yet. His wounds hadn't really healed yet either, but he had to be strong for her, she would be ashamed if Carbine didn't take this chance. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out an ornate piece of parchment with the seal of the King of Vale emblazoned on it, the letter had been opened and read several times, his eyes and mind still having a hard time trying to comprehend the heavy handed messages. It was never mentioned what this 'Beacon Academy' was going to be used for or what he was supposed to do when he got there. It was his first time out of the kingdom, no one else he knew could come so he was walking around blind. Sure the port offered a direct route to the capitol but he needed to see this place once, he needed to see it with his own eyes. Even if he never came back to it, he would have ate himself alive for not doing this at least one time. Finding a mound of dirt he removed his rifle from his shoulder and set it to the ground. His meticulous nature put the safety on naturally, he didn't need to go shooting himself in the foot. That would make the trip even worse than what it was already going to be.

He took a breath as a breeze licked his face, "Hey." Carbine's voice had always been deep, a small gravel element present, "It's me, Jeremiah, I was told you'd be here" There was no response, just a gentle breeze, "Yeah, yeah, I know, you told me not to worry about you but I can't help it. You knew I was a worry wart growing up. The parents are doing fine, dad didn't want me to come down here, I don't think he'll ever change. Speaking of which, you're probably wondering why I'm down here." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a light brown envelope with small creases and folds on the edges. "Well I got this letter from the King of Vale, weird I know, told me to come down here on the date inscribed. It came about a while ago, I don't know if he misjudged the amount of time it would take for a letter to get to Mantle but it said to be here by next week." The wind around him picked up shaking the grass about leaving an almost hypnotic look in Carbine's face. "I don't know what I'm getting into, and frankly I'd like to have you here with me…"

His eyes fell to the ground and the corner of his mouth tugged until it formed a frown, "I'm sorry I couldn't do anything, if I could have trade places I would. It just wasn't fair what happened, part of me thinks that's why dad didn't want me coming here in the first place, can't lose another one of us. He misses you, we all do, but dad much more so than anyone else. I'm not sure if it's because he thinks he failed to protect you or that you grew up so fast and had to make a decision none of us were ready for. You hated fighting, so why'd you do it? Now that I look back, you never did answer me that, I was so angry the last time that you slammed your door on me. Do you know why?" Nothing but silence filled the air as Jeremiah waited, "Same here, I don't know why I'm doing this thing. If you asked me four years ago what I would do if I came to Vale, I would have answered with shooting the enemy on sight, now I don't know. We're in peace, but will it really be that easy? We've managed far, but if what I think is going to happen at this Beacon Academy, it's going to be rough. But hey, I have the old rifle with me," a tap on the old rifle shaking it in the grass as he looked onward and he couldn't help but give a tired sigh, "I miss you so much, I never even got to say goodbye. So let me do it here." Carbine stood up, grabbed his rifle and gave a salute, "Thank you for what you did, for what you fought for, who you fought for. For me."

Carbine began to walk into the grassfield, a dirt road was close where to traversed off the main path, he had to get back on if he wanted to be on time.

"Goodbye sister."

 **-The town of Vale, three days later-**

Oro had never seen such tall buildings, he had never seen buildings made out of stone or brick that looked so pristine, and now that he thought about it he had never seen buildings that weren't destroyed within a few weeks. Everything here was so...clean, orderly although it had a chaos to its own. A uniqueness that he had never seen. People walking through the streets with such hurry and vigor, odd machines on four wheels sparsely going over the cobblestone roads. These must have been the automobiles he had been told about when he was younger. A breeze of wind threatened to take his hat away, a wide conical hat made out of straw he had made himself to protect him from the sun. Once he rescued it he had to dust off his tattered tan cloak which, with it on, made him look slightly overweight. The sound of metal softly clanging against itself could be heard if you really tried to listen. He still stood at the front gates, feeling a bit daunted by their immense height, the two armored guards shifting glances towards each other and shrugging.

"Can we help you sir?" One of them said.

"Oh no, no, no, I'm quite fine I'm just trying to...uh…" Oro's word came fast at first before he looked back up to the large buildings, "do people walk up the entirety of those buildings?" Just looking at them made his breath quicken and his face pale.

"What those? Well some, we have a lift system in some of the newer ones."

"Uh-huh," he nodded with two disjointed syllables.

"Is there something you need help with sir?" They asked again, snapping Oro out of his trance.

"Ah yes, yes," his red eyes shot down while he fidgeted the inside and his speech turned quick again, "Oh I swear to the gods above I keep on misplacing that damn letter. Last time it was in my bag, I swear this never happens guardsmen." While his hands kept searching for whatever it was this letter was for, he had to itch his neck. His fingers scraped against hard scales as the side of neck was covered in lizard-like scales that went all the way down his slightly sunkissed skin. One of the guards tensed up momentarily but a quick glance from the other eased it. "Ah ha!" He yelled pulling out a once white letter that had turned slightly darker from the time it was kept. The seal on it, the red wax pressed in by an ornate seal slightly decayed with the weakest end falling off and cracked.

The soldier's eyes widened at the sight of this kid, no older than maybe seventeen, not because he appeared to be a faunus. But because the insignia on the letter matched that of the symbol on their shields and chest plates. The crest of Vale, two axes crossed surrounded by a laurel wreath. They looked to each other and scrambled, the older of the two spoke, "Take this man to the castle, inform Finley of this."

"But are you sure the king would want...him?" The other shrugged his shield in Oro's direction. Oro hadn't so much as moved and kept that same position of his hand stretched out, his face in blank confusion.

"He has the letter," the senior growled, "as per his majesty's orders he is to be taken to the castle."

"I know it says a few days from now, but I wasn't sure how long the trip was going to take, getting here from the border of Vacuo and Vale didn't take as long as I thought," Oro's tone seemed to be apologetic.

"Wait, you came all the way from there?"

"Yes," his confusion came back, "the soldiers down there told me to go to the capitol. I couldn't believe they just gave me the general direction of this fine town. 'Take the road two miles west, shouldn't miss it', jeez as if I know cardinal directions."

"You walked all the way from Fort Sandtrap?"

"Yes, I was in a hurry."

"That's like a five day walk!" The soldier stood there flabbergasted.

"Not for me, it's like three days, maybe two and a half," Oro calmly argued. "Anybody could make that trip much shorter, just have to know the shortcuts."

"But the heat-"

"Ah, that's what you're worried about, but that is no problem for me," he announced and whipped back his cloak, the soldiers on reaction readied their lances and but eased as his stance relaxed. With his tan cloak to the side, now more like a ragged and heavy cape revealed four or five round canteens that sloshed around his deep red clothing, bits of gold armor on his shoulder and elbows which were slightly scuffed up from use over the years. The dark grey clothing on his legs looked worn around the cuffs with small strands frayed, the gold armor on his knees looked much more damaged than that up top. "I am more than capable to traverse through the lands, it is how I grew up." He clasped his hands together, "But I now how have a more important questions that needs answering. Where can I get something to eat?"

Sitting at a stall in the main street of Vale, Oro slurped up some noodles as if he was struggling to breathe. They practically touched his mouth and then were inhaled only to be replaced by more. When he finished another took his place as he wiped his lips of the broth and then when back to hungrily devouring the noodles. He had chased the other patrons, as few there were, away from the stall. Now what he couldn't decide was if it was due to his eating habits or the armed guard to his side. It wasn't because he was a faunus, no way would that be the case. Putting the final ceramic bowl to the side he let out a hefty sigh and slapped his stomach clanking some of the hidden canitines under his ratty cloak.

"Okay, I'm good, now where off to next?" Oro asked looking to the guard.

"Well," the man half growled in annoyance, we were going to the castle, but somebody wanted to stop at a noodle cart."

"Not my fault I was taken aback by food that was on a moving cart, I must experience all Vale has to offer," the reptilian faunus defended.

"If that letter is the real deal, then you will get to be in Vale for a long time, now come on, we can't keep waiting all this time," the soldier got up, grabbed his lance and hastily made his way through the streets, Oro following him.

"Is there a festival going on?" He inquisitively asked, moving in out of so many people it was almost dizzying to him. Stalls and buildings lined the street, reaching his hand out he grabbed a newspaper, the texture felt odd to him, but he enjoyed the pixelated images.

"What? No, it's like this everyday," came the response from Oro's guide, "you really aren't from around here?"

"What reason would I lie about being a wanderer?" A question to answer a question, a common thing with the faunus the soldier was finding, "But if you want a hard answer, then yes I come from outside the kingdoms, I was raised in a nomadic group."

"Got any family?"

"We considered the whole group our family," leaning over he took a errant fruit from a wooden crate, taking a bite out of it, recoiling at the taste, and tossing it away after spitting out a pit, "I never knew which one were my parents."

"Couldn't you tell because you know...you're a…" the soldier stopped and turned, having trouble trying to come up with the right words.

"A faunus."

Oro's bluntness stopped the soldier cold, the soldier looked guilty of a crime or something, and the lizard faunus' unassuming face didn't help the situation.

He continued, this time walking past the guard, "About half of the tribe I grew up with were faunus, that makes for a wide pool of about thirty individuals. When you move from place to place, sometimes losing people along the way, it helps not knowing who your birth parents are."

"That's kind of a sick way of looking at it," the soldier responding.

"And so is fighting a war when your settlements and villages burn to the ground, either by bandits or the grimm," Oro turned with a frank and disappointed smile, "I've seen a lot for one person to handle, charred bodies, collapsed towers, and grimm feeding by the dozens. And you think I have a sick twisted view of the world? My dear soldier friend, I was shown the colors of the world when it was splashed with red and black. So when I get to see green grass again, I'm going to rejoice to the heavens."

Quietly, off to the side the soldier grumbled, "I don't get paid enough for this. Okay, so a few things to know about when we get to the castle."

"Go ahead," came the quick interruption, the eyes of the faunus still traversing.

"Don't talk out loud, don't say anything, and don't make any sudden movements. Finley doesn't like surprises."

"If I'm not allowed to talk then do you really need to tell me to not talk aloud."

The soldier paused, the words confusing him to the point of exasperation, "Listen, Commander Finley is a little high strung these days. Don't say anything, we'll give him your letter, and then you can do whatever is so important about these letters."

"You don't know?"

"I don't know, the public doesn't know, even some of the King's closest advisors don't know what's inside the letters. Only those who have them know what is written in them, all we know is that if we see one to take the person holding them to the castle. So shut up until we get there."

"Seems a little rude, but lead the way," Oro said looking around this truly magnificent town.

 **-X-**

Far off a cliffside, overlooking the lush green top of the Emerald forest stood a man tall and straight. His blue tailcoat prim and properly ironed, not a single crease or out of place ruffle. The red buttons on one side left open leaving a white dress shirt and vest to match, his scruffy and bushy brown beard lined his slightly tanned skin. His head practically bald with maybe the last remnants of his hair fading away. His eyes fell down to below the cliffside where a remarkable structure stood, concrete and cobblestone with marble could be seen on the other side of the forest.

When the man heard footsteps he turned his back.

"Sir," came a worker's voice, covered in dust and grime, tired and dreary, "we've finished the last of the work."

"Excellent," his voice was deep and growled at the end of his breath, "I trust that you sent one to light the lantern as instructed by his majesty?"

"Yes sir, we're doing that now."

True to the worker's words, at the very top of the tallest tower, in the middle of the structure, a green light became visible. Even in the midday sun it could be seen for miles, what would the public think when the night came would be a mystery. One that he really didn't have time for.

"Excellent, you and your crew may leave," with the workman gone the man gave a sigh and shook his head. "Your majesty I don't know what you're leading us into, but I wish you were here to lead it, the public are growing restless, they want answers that you ordered me to keep silent. As your servant I will do everything in my power to accommodate your requests, but I can o

nly do so much. Let's hope this plan of yours will be enough to stop her." Turning around, a brown prehensile tail flipped to his side a flicked, "All of your work has paid off, I have no idea how to run a school. Guess it will be a learning experience for me as well."

He narrowed his eyes.

"Beacon Academy for Huntsmen and Huntresses is now accepting students."

" _I, as the King of Vale, am ordering an annexation of land several miles north of the Emerald Forest and several miles wide for the construction of Beacon Academy. This will be a project that will take years to complete but in time we will expand the other kingdoms of Remnant. If you are receiving this message than I wish for you to come and visit what will be the turning point for our world. Even though we a few years years, I hope you keep this letter in mind as recognition of your combat prowess and progressive ways. Whether you fought in the war or not, whether you are a member of the kingdoms or you live outside the walls, I ask you to join me in my quest to prevent a war as heartbreaking as this. I understand if some of you have hostility towards Vale or Vacuo, or towards Mantle or Mistral, but we must begin anew in hopes to further peace. If you wish to push that goal forward then come to the capitol in the Kingdom of Vale on the date inscribed on this letter. I hope to see you on the grand opening of what will be the door of the future. Bring this letter on the day marked and you will be granted entrance."_

 _-Letter of Admission for Beacon Academy, dated three weeks after the end of the Great War._

 **-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

Name: (Self Explanatory, try to lean off the edge on these. Since we don't know when the 'Color Revolution/Naming Tradition' came into effect I'm gonna say it's optional, but I know some people like to do it.)

Age: (17-20)

Gender:

Species: (Human or Faunus)

Kingdom of Birth: (Can be of the usual 4 or live outside the kingdoms),.

Appearance: (Be creative, have fun. Include physical and clothing descriptions)

Personality: (We don't need twenty five thousand edge lords here, not everything is dark and grey)

Background: (Since this is taking place in the past, groups such as the White Fang do not exist as of yet, so that common avenue will be closed. Keep that in mind along with the fact this is the first year for the academy, have a small explanation as to why you think your character would receive an invitation)

Semblance: (Try not to copy the established cast's, if it is along the same lines like a clone semblance but is different I'm not gonna cry too much foul.)

Weapon: (So here is the issue and the pain of putting this so far in the past. There are to be no complicated, mechashift weapons, it pains me but because this was eighty years ago from the canon timeline. I cannot in good faith think there would be the tech capable for things like Scythe/Sniper Rifles. The only example is Crocea Mors which is a basic sword and shield combo, I'll accept things like. Simple things that make sense)

Skills: (Can be anything. Combat skills, domestic skills, whatever you think would help flesh out your character, do it. But not too many)

Weaknesses: (Like skills, but for negative attributes, again can be anything. Not too many either. A one for one ratio of Skills to Weaknesses is a decent model for this)

Notes: (Anything else I need to know?)

Final Remarks

Appearance, Personality, and Background will be the big three components I judge your character on. Put your focus into those three things and craft a character with that in mind and I may be willing to overlook some things that if you're character didn't have those three done well would get them denied. Make them stand out

While mentioned before that I don't want twenty thousand edgelords, I do want a full range of characters. Can we have one or two… maybe, just follow Note #1 and you'll be good.

Do I expect characters with tragic pasts? Yes, this has just come after a war, some people will most definitely have that. I'm not gonna shout at you if you want to include one.

Once a character is submitted to me, that's all after that. You will have no say or influence on my decision. Now, that does not mean I am not willing to work with you. If I think we can iron out a few details, change some things around a little, then I will try to make it a priority before accepting other characters so I can fairly compare them.

PM only, no characters will be taken from the review section.

I'm gonna say one character per author, but that may change overtime, they're are a limited number of spots available so I would like as many participants as possible.

When submitting please title your PM as RWBY SYOC- *Character Name*. For example if I were to do it would go like this: RWBY SYOC-Jeremiah Carbine.

Perhaps down the road, I will open up a villain and teacher/side character form, but that is still up in the air.


	2. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: I crawl from the abyss into air for a moment to bring you this message. So how you've been? So this was supposed to be coming out sooner, but life happens. I arrived back for college and got done with my first week of classes, which means that writing for fun is a strain because of all the other writing I have to do. Thank you to all the people who submitted a character, congrats to the people who were accepted (you know who you are), to all the people who haven't been accepted or haven't heard from me yet, there is a note down below at the end of the chapter. Also, I know you guys care and want to know, but please do not PM asking if everything is alright. I know you guys are anxious, but I hate it, nothing against the people who did it, but please don't. Finally, this was brought up to me, but for clarification the -X- is used for a scene switch which takes place during the same time, while an actual time skip will be noted.**

 **-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-**

Chapter 1: Out of the Fire and Into the Volcano

The feeling of not having small droplets of water dripping onto your face from sleeping in a cave was a relatively unusual one to Oro. Sure he had spent time in an inn or shabby shack while traveling through the years, but the stuffy air was always a stark difference from the clean, sometimes cold, air of a mountain or desert that you couldn't just forget. When he sat up, he remembered the room he was led to last night by some of the guards stationed around the castle. Calling it a castle didn't feel quite right he thought, from the little but he's read with the few books he had come across, Oro had always imagined castles to be large and grandiose. At most this was a rather large building sure, it was bigger than some villages he had seen. But where were the massive banners? The golden chandeliers? The lovely missus in frilly dresses and corsets that put all the junk in all the right places? This was already going downhill if you asked him. A wooden desk with a few scratches on the legs stood by a very pretty and lovely window. Why there were images of birds and women on them left the lizard faunus utterly perplexed. What good was a window if you couldn't see through it? These civilised places never ceased to confuse him.

As he remembered there was still over twelve hours until the letter asked to be in the capital, which meant he had time to wander either the town or the castle some more. After getting there he was practically shoved into a room with a guard posted at his door to make sure he didn't leave. Odd reasoning it was. The mysterious ways of the people sometimes…

Now that he was free, he took a step outside of his tiny little confines looking both ways before a guard shoved him back in his room for another ridiculous reason. The castle was absolutely bustling with people he did not recognize, some of them he didn't see yesterday. Some older, some his age, some decked out in knight's armor, and some in casual clothes. He wanted to keep quiet, he really did, but carrying about four or five canteens filled to the brim did make it so. By the time he took two steps they clinked against one another and his armor beneath his cloak. Oro made a note that having a ratty cloak and cone straw hat did not fit in with dignitaries.

When Oro got to the outside he took a big whiff of fresh, clean, and slightly unstuffy air. Well, as clean as a town with the exhaust from automobiles and a few smoke stacks off in the far shore near the waterfront. Once again, much like his initial visit, people were bustling about in the streets. Going to and fro whatever normal people did in their day to day lives. He tried to think what they might do but nothing came to mind. If it was like anything he'd seen in the few villages he had visited he expected at least a bar, with perhaps a lovely barmaid and drunken patrons who he swore never left. Maybe a doctor, possibly some soldiers, a lot of women and children.

This though, this was all different, he assumed that some of the men would return to their homes after The War but he never thought it was this many. They were everywhere, he hated this analogy, but they were like insects. Worker ants or perhaps cockroaches sprawling throughout the city through their concrete tunnels and passageways. On the sidewalk he felt so confined, trying to look around did not ease the mounting heat rising in his face. Eyes forward or downward, scowls or grimaces, and the color drained from the atmosphere. Was this really life in the big cities? Oro never thought he was claustrophobic, but he found his breathing beginning to quicken and his collar swiftly began to feel like it was trying to strangle him. Thankfully he was giving sanctuary as he slipped off into an alley off to the side.

"That was awful," he said making small gasps, he reached down to one of his canteens but stopped halfway. "No, I don't want to deal with burning this early in the morning."

His stomach made sure he knew he was hungry as it gave a low grumble, "Oh you're going to give me all kinds of problems." He stepped through to the other side of the alley which thankfully was not as packed as the previous. Although it did look a little more seedy than the other.

The first establishment he went into had shabby doors held on loose hinges, candles and lanterns lit up the building filled with the thick present of smoke. A common thing he had learned to stomach since it seemed like a good way to forget things. The immediate of pungent smoke that filled his nostrils made him recoil and close his eyes, but it was the silence of room which made him open them. He was sure there were people talking earlier but now it was deafening quiet. All eyes were on as the doors creaked closed behind. Lifting his hat up he could see many older men grimacing and scowling, if some were drinking or eating many stopped doing so. All motion stopped as he stood there just as motionless as the patrons.

Finally he broke the silence, he removed his hat and pointed to it, "Oh I get it, you don't like cone hats, I was like that too until I tried one." He cringed when he heard the sound of shattering glass against a table and a wooden chair screeching back as someone stood up in his seat. "Not much for jokes are we?"

"Can't you read the sign," came overly gruff sounds of the angry bartender. It sounding like someone was letting a metal rake claw against the pavement. Buff shoulders and a beard in knots, tattoos and crusty hands that should have not been cleaning that mug.

"What sign?" Oro asked in response, turning his head around to the walls.

"The one outside saying your kind are not allowed in here," a growl and a look of pure disgust aimed at the reptilian faunus.

"And what is my kind?" Owlish eyes looked back into anger laced on, Oro took a step back propping one of his hands against the door.

"Faunus," one of the more older, balder with a long, huge beard. Teeth missing and eyes slightly dazed. What little hair he had left was nearly bleached white with age. "All them elitist bastards runnin' the kingdom saw to it to let you animals roam free in the kingdoms. Now we got vermin runnin' in the streets instead of doin' what they should've been doin' all along. Plowing fields and working away fer us."

"Well it seems like I am most un-welcomed here," Oro said, bead of sweat running down the side of his face and small butterflies threatening to start a mutiny in his stomach, "so why don't I just leave and let you all to your grievances?"

Before anything could happen Oro, pushed the doors wide open and sprinted out of the building not stopping to look back. The one time he did he saw there was no one behind him, he sighed in relief and looked back to where he was going-

And crashed right into the back of another person.

"Oh Bob's your uncle," he said falling onto the pavement with a rattle with all his metal on him. "Sorry about that," when he got up he extended his hand but was stopped when it met a stomach from someone who did not fall down. When he looked forward he winced at the harsh gaze from glaring electric blue eyes into his own red. "There is a perfectly good reason for this."

 **-Castle of Vale, some time later-**

When Carbine's mind remembered that he was in the castle in the capital of Vale, his first thought was that he had been captured by the enemy. But once he saw the furnishings they had provided for him, his heart rate settled down but he reached for his rifle and placed it beside him as he got dressed. Judging by how bright it was it must have been at least midday by now, meaning that he missed breakfast and maybe lunch too.

" _Perfect,"_ he rolled his eyes as he hoisted his rifle back to its usual position. " _First day here and I overslept. If the higher ups could see me now."_ Granted if they knew he was in the same building as the leader of the enemy they could probably forgo punishing his sleeping habits and just ask to kill the king from the inside. He shook his head of those thoughts, " _Time of peace we're in peace now."_ No thinking of war plots, no secret plans or infiltrations, he was here for whatever the king wanted. As to what this Beacon Academy was supposed to do he just had to sit and wait. Apparently the group was scheduled to leave later in the afternoon, but to where was another mystery. If this was truly how his next few years were going to be spent then someone might be getting a bullet between their eyes.

The way people moved through the castle let him know who were supposed to be here and who were guests like himself. Well dressed butlers and maids walked like guards on patrols, continually searching for something out of place while he and others were trying to navigate the halls of this labyrinth. He let his eyes wander side to side, an old tactic he used to look like he was busy but in all tense was just lost. Got him out of doing many pedestrian tasks back in Mantle. However in a slightly crowded building it didn't work when he bumped into someone shorter than he was. He stumbled but managed to keep his footing, his grip instinctively tightening onto the strap of his bayonet. He didn't say anything and watched the much stockier man slowly turn his way like a heavy cog in an old clock tower.

If he were to compare by height, Carbine might've said he had an inch or two on the man. The stranger was more built for strength than Carbine who stuck to ranged combat. The two shared eye colors, brown, but this man was a few shades lighter than the dirt that filled Carbine's irises. Where Carbine's hair was short and white, this individual's was a contrasting dark brown that was shaggy, unkempt, and scraggly. It almost covered most of his eyes but a few strands parted ways so he could see. He looked tired, the bags around his eyes, a titch of stubble lining his chin, and his movements were exaggerated. What took time to notice surprisingly were the two folded bear ears atop his head.

" _So he is a faunus,"_ Carbine made a note, not only to remember that the invitations were sent to both sides and species, but to not say anything that might be deemed 'offensive'.

It took the ex-soldier to determine this guy wasn't a part of the castle staff, with his suit and all. Although the creases and dustiness of it all, not to mention it looked stressed and well used in the joints did help with making it look older and need of a replacement. A castle, no matter the people running it, would never accept one of their staff looking like that.

But what made it all the more easier to distinguish that whoever this person was, wasn't one of the staff, was the large metal cross he kept on his back. Calling a sword would be wrong, it was more like a angular club or the tool used to demolish a building if the demolition crew went on strike. It was a weapon not forged out of precise measurements or clean lethality but out of crude strength and hostile indifference. A barbaric and indiscriminate weapon.

" _Dangerous,"_ was the only thought Carbine could muster after seeing his weapon. And like all things that were potentially dangerous, he went to neutralize the threat. He extended his hand and put on a smile. "The name's Carbine, Jeremiah Carbine."

The man, a tad perplexed at the initial interaction kept a small confused glance at his hand. But as quickly as it came, it left just as fast, "Akihiro Cedar, odd greeting technique if I do say so."

"Well, I'm a weird guy," Carbine shot back, now the merit of his words weren't completely false, but they weren't entirely true. "Up to anything?"

"No, not really, I was going to find something to eat, but I am utterly lost. Know how to navigate this maze?"

"The dining should be in the back, a center room in the castle."

"That was fast, did you eat here last night?"

" _No, we were required to memorize the castle blueprints back in Mantle for a suicide mission,"_ was what he was about to say, but caught himself, "No, but I took a small tour of it by myself last night before heading to bed. Help wear myself out, you know?"

"I just usually drink a glass of warm milk," Akihiro chuckled, "care to show me where I can get some food?"

"Gladly," walking down the halls in silence is what Carbine would normally do back in Mantle, but he was not in Mantle. He was in unfamiliar territory, he had to adapt, had to improvise, he had to be nice. "So what's with giant slab of metal across your back?"

"Oh, that," he rotated his shoulder to highlight it's movements, "I made it shortly before I was invited here, my uncle said I needed to forge a 'real weapon' and not one made from scrap metal."

"What's wrong with scrap metal?"

"Well, I couldn't join the war because of that."

"Seems like a trivial thing to stop you." What kind of military wouldn't let a big, muscular guy like him into the war effort? Vale couldn't have been that stubborn not to accept soldiers just because of a weapon.

Akihiro scratched his chin and chuckled. A hint of nervousness laced in it, "Well, the unit I tried to join had strict rules."

"Hmm," was all Carbine grunted, but his mind going wild with all kinds of observation. " _So he tried to something special, but was turned down for not having his own weapon. I'll have to look at some intel."_

Finally, after what seemed like an unusually lengthy time, Carbine and the bear faunus arrived at a dining hall, with a few people already at the massive, ornate wooden table. Along the edges you could see animals and warriors carved into the wood, systemic and in a patter. Warrior, wolf, bear, warrior, and it would repeat. Simplistic, yet elegant, Carbine did think of becoming a woodcarver after the War ended, but then he tried to use a hacksaw.

How no one died that day is a miracle.

From the other side, having to hold back his instincts from punching them, a butler came up to Carbine and bowed. "Gentlemen, may I interest you in some Mistralan lobster? Perhaps some cod freshly caught from Patch?"

Akihiro and Carbine were both slightly frightened at the sudden appearance and hospitality, not to mention the options that the waiter continued to list off were odd. Hand picked Golden Vale Apples? Freshly brewed Mantle Ale? Okay that last one sounded pretty decent. The two had to tell the waiter that they would take some ale and a steak. The drinks came first, bubbly and golden like the sun or maybe a daffodil. The mug holding the liquid dripping with condensation, cold to the touch. Drinking at his age wasn't unheard of, plenty of other soldiers smuggled contraband to the barracks, Carbine didn't partake often, but he would if given enough egging.

"So where you from?" Akihiro asked.

"Hmm?" Carbine finished taking a swig, half catching it, half not wanting to.

"Oh, I'm sorry, my mother would scold me for my rudeness. I'm from Vacuo, a small village several days from Shade. What about you? Judging by that coat you look like you're from northern Vale, maybe even Vytal."

Carbine waited until Akihiro took a sip from his mug, "I'm from Mantle." Personally, he was surprised that the faunus didn't spit the contents of the drink at him by accident, somehow the man had enough reaction to spit to the side. " _I'd say that was worth it."_

Akihiro coughed to catch his breath, nothing like the burn of alcohol plus a little violent hacking before a meal. "Wait, you're from Mantle?"

"Wanna say it any louder? I don't think everybody heard you?" A relaxed Carbine said, leaning back with a roll of his eyes. "Yeah I'm from Mantle, I grew up in the capital, raised there my whole life." He grabbed the mug and lifted it to his lips, "That an issue?"

Across the table Akihiro seemed to mull over it, "No, the war's over, I'm just surprised that you decided to come over to Vale."

"Why not? As you said the war is over."

"Yes, but some people have a hard time of letting things go."

"You saying people in Vale are still hostile?"

"Not particular, it's only a small minority, but it's not only people from Mantle others are hostile to."

"Probably Mistral too I imagine."

"I wasn't talking about Kingdom allegiances," when Carbine shot a confused glance towards Akihiro, the twitch of his ears connected the dots he needed.

"That's right, forgot they abolished faunus slavery with the Vytal Accords," putting his feet on the table he could set the mug on his chest. "You weren't a slave were you?"

"What? In Vacuo? The population is nearly sixty percent faunus, it would be pretty difficult to have a slave trade in that environment."

"So what? A few farmers upset about losing their free labor?"

"For the most part, while the practice was outlawed in Vacuo, it was only frowned upon here in Vale. That meant that some people had a small amount in the cities, farms and plantations still had many, but you may have seen one or two in a bookstore or grocer. I'm sure that Mantle was hit pretty hard by that."

"You make it sound like we had a bunch of faunus to exploit."

"From what I know, they did, all sorts of nasty up in the frozen north."

"And I'm sure everything down here was hunky dory."

"I'm not trying to get a rise out of you," Akihiro held his hands, trying to ease the sudden defensive tone from Carbine, "you only hear a small part of the whole story with these things." Thankfully, their food arrived and the two started eating giving them some silence and mindless eating to fill the time.

"So, what did you do in Vacuo?" Carbine finally asked after wiping his mouth with an overly fancy napkin.

"Well, I mentioned that I got denied to enter my uncle's unit because of my weapon, so I did a few odd jobs here and there. Fruit stall vendor, I did eventually help out with supplies for convoys and caravans travelling through the village. What about you?"

"I was a soldier," mechanically, automatically, naturally Carbine said, mindlessly carving a chunk of meat from itself.

Akihiro could be seen visibly scooting forward, interested, "See any combat?"

Still keeping his body in position, but locking his eyes with him he breathed, almost angrily "Nope."

"Nothing?"

"No," he repeated, but could see the obvious confusion, "I graduated from the military academy six months before the War ended. Common practice was to keep the fresh kids on the homefront to protect against grimm and if need be invasions. But by then all the focus was on the Vacuo campaign. Vale and Vacuo realized that taking Mantle is near impossible because it's a giant yeah, I went out on drills and training, but never saw any real combat."

"Good, good, would have hated to lose someone like you."

Again, Carbine's eyes moved up but his body stayed still, chewing on a tough piece of steak, "What does that mean?"

"You're pretty nice, not overly rude or say anything harsh. Still pretty brave that you've come all the way down to Vale."

"Well like I said the War's over, I don't have too many reasons to hate you."

"Which is why we should stick together, some people, as noble as they may be, will have a hard time coming to grips with that. Even here is Vale there are some fringe groups who are still bloodthirsty."

" _So it's like that here too,"_ it was much worse in Mantle, some advisors and generals have lost their position for suggestion a counterattack, extremists still on the radio waves if you were to tune in. "So what? You think that we need to join up because people might target us?"

"I'm not too worried about it, I know people will not like me because I am a faunus and nothing I cando will change that, but I think a friend or two would help to have."

"Hmm, I'll keep it in mind. Do we know what's going on later today? I remember hearing the staff saying about taking us outside of the city."

"They're probably taking us to the Emerald Forest."

"What for?"

"Don't know, I've just heard a few people whispering about it like you have. From what I know the Emerald Forest was a training ground for the military. Usually grimm combat and guerrilla warfare when Mistral or Mantle made the jump across the ponds."

"They expect everyone here to go through military exercises?"

"Have you noticed who's here?" Akihiro asked surprised by Carbine omission when he shook his head, "Everyone here seems to have fought in the War or has some connection to it. I heard about a Valesian spy who can turn into butterflies, and I think a Vacuo-born merc who's been around Remnant."

"What the hell? That's an odd group to get together, do any of u now what's going on with this Beacon Academy is going to be used for?"

"Nope, everyone's been tight lipped about, Rumor is that some of the King's trusted advisors know what's going on. Also," Akihiro motioned Carbine to come closer and then spoke in a whisper, "I've heard the King's been missing."

Carbine had to remind himself to keep quiet, about to shout but caught himself before doing so, "What? How do you lose track of a king? He couldn't of just walked out of the kingdom."

"He set up a mock government to run the kingdom in his absence," the bear faunus explained, "after the War ended and the Vytal Accords were signed, he just vanished."

"I don't know how to feel about that," Carbine said leaning back in his chair, "why would he leave when his people would probably need him the most?"

"I couldn't tell you, if I could, I'd be running this kingdom, or whatever Beacon's supposed to be."

True, probably the only person who knew where the king was the king himself. Not thinking on it any further he looked to a large ornate clock, everything in this accursed castle was large and ornate. With an annoyingly bright shade or green, it was like looking into a garden in the middle of spring. "Well we have a few hours until we need to leave? Got any ideas?"

"No," shaking his head, Akihiro replied, "I was just going to get some food and that was it."

"Well aren't you just useless."

"Hey," he held up his hands in defense along with a smile, "I wanted to be a soldier not a party planner."

"Trust me, it wasn't all glitz and glamour, I had this one friend who went to Vale, and when he came back he was known 'Twitchy-Tracey'. Apparently they were setting defenses when he tripped in the mud where they had all these mines set up. Now keep in mind the, commander was nearby doing inspections…"

 **-Several hours later-**

There was something ominous about overlooking a forest in the beginning of the evening. Seeing the sun fall beneath the tree line of what you knew was a forest full of monsters only made Mono question what in the actual shit was she thinking. She should have stayed with the force she kept telling herself. And no amount of fidgeting her utility belt would fix that. The fact her black hair was just the right height to block her vision, being in a bob cut. And why did she think getting dolled up was a good idea, she spent time on her mascara and black lipstick. If this was going to go how she deduced, this was going to be a bad time. She was one of the earliest one's here, so earlier she went through her equipment, made sure her bullet proof vest was securely strapped, put her trench coat on top. Her purple eyes scanned the field, looking at all the people here, most her age if not all.

In total about a hundred or so.

" _Interesting,"_ she thought to herself, her brain immediately thinking of multiple scenarios as to why these individuals would be here, what reasons they would to show up, how she might have to encounter them. All possibilities, not a single one left behind or unturned.

Then a platoon of Vale soldiers followed by what she supposed was a dignitary come forward, but not one she recognized. An older gentleman with a fuzzy face and monkey tail, dressed in a light blue tailcoat.

"Ladies, gentlemen," he said in booming voice, far from what Mono expected, all the small circles and groups silenced themselves to look upon the man standing across from them. The Emerald Forest to their backs, a steep hill to the deadly home of the grimm. "I must thank all of you for coming here with no incentive. I must admit, many more letters were sent out but it looks like some of them were ignored, it will be their loss."

"Who are you?!" Came a voice from the back.

"I am his Majesty's most trusted servant and advisor, L. Frank Finley. His lordship has entrusted me with this task of utmost secrecy."

"What task?!" Came another.

"The answer," Finley outstretched his hand and all turned around to see a shining green light in the distance, Mono assumed it was some kind of structure, "lies beyond the Emerald Forest, at Beacon Academy. Should you find your way there, within the next twelve hours, you will be granted admittance."

"What are we going to be doing at a school?!"

"Again," he motioned to the structure, "you will find out if you make it to Beacon."

" _If?"_ Mono thought to herself, something about it left the crowd whispering.

"While the soldiers of Vale will be here to monitor, they will not help you should you encounter the grimm. You are to make it to the academy on your own, you can enlist the help of people and I will say it will get you better marks if you do."

"You're grading us on surviving?"

Finley nodded quaintly, "Well this is a school after all. Your initiation test will begin in two minutes, any more questions?" As Finley waited for hands, a brief case was brought to him by a patient soldier.

"Yeah, how are we getting down to the forest? You driving us down there or something?"

"No, I am not, you are to make your way down there yourself."

Small gear started to churn in Mono's head, something about that briefcase seemed fishy, and there was an odd familiar smell in the air, it was faint.

"Well how do you expect to make it down there? It's a pretty steep drop."

"Actually, it isn't all that drastic. Besides, if you do not wish to traverse down yourselves, then you will be forced to move."

The gears in Mono's head went full overtime, putting all the pieces together and finally determining the smell.

" _Fire Dust, modified for explosives."_

They were going to blow the mountainside if they didn't move.

Mono pushed down people as she ran, as she did so Finley brought up his watch and counted down. Various people looking at her weird, not that she cared. Soon though other people caught on and made a break for it, running down the hillside with her. She wasn't sure how long it was going to take, but by the time she landed on the green grass of the forest she made a break for it. She knew there would be grimm, but she could still see the tower in the distance. That's all that mattered right.

 _*KA-BOOM!*_

The sound was deafening, she could feel the rush of the explosives hit her neck making it sickeningly warm. No doubt every grimm in the forest would have heard that, meaning that they would swarm over here. If she could get past the initial line, he could make it out.

She really should have stayed with the force.

 **-X-**

Finley looked at the cleanly cleaved side of the cliff he had just made with a press of a button, he was equally surprised as he was grateful that some of them were able to pick up on what he was planning. Still, when the king came back he was going to have to talk about the king's methods. What was the other option? Launching them off a catapult into the forest and hope they land?

" _Perhaps we don't say that one aloud,"_ Finley shuddered, mainly because the king might actually do it. He looked down at his watch, the clock ticking now. He had to get to Beacon and get his office ready, not to mention to prepare his speech when the students arrived, and prepare a nurses quarters for anybody who might need it. He turned, letting the students, the future begin right before his old dreary eyes.

 _ **Time Left: 11 Hours, 58 Minutes**_

 **-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-**

 **I'm not gonna lie, I hated this chapter, to me it feels awful and badly paced, but I needed to get it out or I swear to god all of you are going to message me and asked if I did of yellow fever or something. I'm glad the prologue was a better intro chapter than this one, while it wasn't a intro in name, I still felt like it was.**

 ***Announcement for the SYOC***

 **As of right now there are three slots, if you were in with the original batch of characters submitted with the prologue and haven't heard back from me do not fret, you are not out. I will however say that you will have to fight against any new submissions. Honestly speaking I could have closed the submissions within the first few days but decided not to because I don't particularly like that with an SYOC. I am putting a date on when submissions will be closed and that date is September 1st (Pacific Time Zone or PT). I will take in any new submissions. The last thing I'm going to tell you is that human characters are going to be prioritized higher than faunus. Right now the ratio is a little skewed in faunus favor, nothing wrong with that but I would like it to be even. So if you already have submitted but haven't heard back from me and want to increase your chances of having one of your characters submitted, you can do that. FYI, I'm not going to accept the same character with the only difference is them being human. That's lazy, don't do that.**

 **Credits**

 **-Jeremiah Carbine (chronoman)**

 **-Oro (chronoman**

 **-Akihiro Cedar (AvisB)**

 **-Mono Chrome (ObieSempai)**


	3. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: So something needs to be cleared up. So I made the comment last time that I "hated" the previous chapter and I still do stand by that notion. I hate doing introductions so much, which is sort of counterproductive to the story I'm writing right now so...yeah. I'm not trying to sound cocky when I say this, but I've never been not confident in my writing, I know I'm a damn decent writer. It's just that what I'm writing isn't all that fun for me right now.**

 **-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-**

Chapter 2: Just Like Basic Training

 _Beowulf- One of the most common types of Grimm Species in Remnant, it can be seen on every continent on the planet. Typically travelling in packs, they are fast and will rarely attack one at a time. What little intelligence they have is used for a swarming and rarely fight alone. One of the earliest grimm discovered, it is best to attack its hind legs which have little to no armor. While they are strong, the back feet are its main source of propulsion. The front arms are more appropriate for lunging and not movement. They are weak enough for a single soldier to overcome, and whole packs can be removed by a single platoon of soldiers; which is the most recommended._

 _Army of Vale Grimm Field Guide, Page 12 Basic Grimm Combat Para-6_

Mono thrashed past the foliage in her way, ignoring the oncoming insects or occasional leaf smacking her forehead. Her hair whipping past, the items on her belt recoling as they hit her hips. Not normally one to act of instinct but when in an forest filled with monsters, somethings cannot be ignored. She hadn't even looked back since hearing the explosion. What was the king thinking? Perhaps all the Vacuo sun in the end of the war got to his head. Having his head servant blow up the side of a cliff, what idiocy.

Through the thick treeline she realized that she couldn't make out the light she was supposed to be paying attention to. Cursing she finally came to a halt and stopped to take in her surroundings. It was a lot of trees, naturally, decaying stumps and living ones. Odd tears in the ground, perhaps tracks from a vehicle. They looked recent enough, maybe at most a few hours, curious if they had the king's men had just been through here. Mono had to rip herself from examining the tracks on the ground, that was not the objective, what she needed was a better view. She needed to find the green light and get out of here, preferably now than when night arrived. From what little the force had mention of the forest, they always said it was too dangerous for just a cop when night fell.

There was a reason the army of Vale decided to stop using the forest for training grounds.

Finding any hill, any mound, she even thought about climbing the trees to get a better view. The density of the trees was just too much, if this were a more tropical area she could easily have considered this a rainforest like in Mistral or perhaps in the forests near the border of Vacuo and Vale. Through some finagling and jerry-rigging she was able to find a way to pear through a crack of the woods. She was hanging upside down from a branch about fifteen feet up, but it worked nonetheless. She reached back onto her belt, her position made it a bit difficult since all her items were moving about and her upside down coat limited her movement ever so slightly. From her hip she pulled out a small pair of binoculars and adjusted them accordingly. As she expected, straight ahead was the green light. It was closer than she imagined, almost too close. Was this really supposed to take half a day?

The sound of bark snapping caught her attention as the integrity of the branch was not as top notch as she first thought. Coming down with a massive crack sound, the ground came increasingly fast with little time to react. The dirt and her face collided hard, she thanked the gods that her aura was active. The situation alone put her senses and aura on a hair trigger. Not many of cops had aura, or civilians for that matter, you really only got it when you got into a life or death situation. Most civilians get it in a life threatening situation like in a train crash or more recently during the war a bullet wound you could survive. Being on the force she had outlived many things that could have killed her. Falling from a branch though was a new one she'd have to put on the list.

A ping went off in her head and she went stone cold.

A ringing in her mind as she ceased any useless thought, then another and then more followed. It was silent besides that, no footsteps, nothing to make her think someone was watching, nothing to make her think she was among friends.

Just silence.

Cautiously, slowly, she reached down to her hi and pulled out a nine millimeter pistol, simple, robust, standard to all the police in Vale. Nothing as fancy as say a a gun handed out by the military, but a bullet is hard to walk away from any gun. In all her experience at the station Mono had never dealt much with them, if at all, that wasn't her job. But she knew the signs well enough to be wary of them.

She could see the first eyes in the bush, blood red, thirsty for carnage, and hungry for young fearful human flesh. She could hear the labored breath, they were holding back, but could barely contain themselves through it all. She took a breath and aimed down her sights, lining them up between a pair of red eyes…

 _*CRACK*_

 _ **Time Left: 10 Hours, 43 Minutes**_

 **-X-**

 _Nevermore- One of the only examples of a bird like grimm, their growth and aging process is much faster than the Beowulf or Ursa, but with less distinction. The only difference is an age dimorphism, the older one is the larger they become. Young Nevermore can appear to be the size of crows, but the older ones can be as long as some village squares. Despite being large in size and swift in speed, they are surprisingly brittle, like their avian counterparts, the only explanation must because of a hollow bone structure. What is for certain is that Nevermore mirror the habits of birds such as crows and vultures, they are scavengers of the battlefield. Multiple reports witness after a battle the Nevermore are the first to arrive to 'clean up' of the deceased making reclaiming bodies another battle in itself. The important thing to do when a Nevermore is chasing you, or your cargo, is to have some obstruction between you and it. Preferably in a forest line or cave system, while they hunger like the grimm their attention is lacking if presented with an easier target. If you are being chased by one in a flat plain or barren landscape, pray to the gods your aim is true._

 _Military Mantle Book of Grimm Combat, Page 54_

"Keep running, that thing still sees us!"

"That 'thing'?! I believe there are multiple things chasing us!"

"Yes, yes, I'm sorry, I was too busy trying to not become a worm for our friendly avian creature currently stalking us, to notice multiples of them."

"So why don't we stand and fight?! We have the advantage of the tree lines."

Oro stopped on his heels, heaved a few breaths that sounded more like exaggerated sighs. "Because, that thing," Oro pointed to the black object passing through holes in the tree lines, "is something I do not want to mess with Lynae."

Lynae, as usual, half scowled at him. Her electric blue eyes judging him all the way to court. He had found she does that often. He was seriously regretting bumping into her back in Vale, when he did he spilled her drink, an expensive drink as she informed him multiple times. Why a drink like coffee should cost as much as she was making it out to be once again puzzled Oro.

A snap of from a pair of fingers snapped Oro from his thoughts, "Are you even listening to me?" Lynae let her hands fall to her hips, perhaps one of the few things Oro could compliment about her. Well, that and her pleasingly, almost caramel colored skin. It was a nice contrast from her striking, and easily discernible blue hair. Light blue from the roots and then dark blue highlights. When the bombs went off, finding her had been really easy. In actuality, it had been her who found him, something about not wanting to deal with idiots she didn't know.

So that meant she went with the idiot she _did_ know.

"Sorry, sorry, I got lost in thought," he said with a chuckle.

"Again?" A very agitated sigh came out of Lynae, she scratched the side of her head, which had been buzzed, the length of her hair falling onto the other side of her head like she preferred it to be. Massaging her forehead, around her faunus features that were two horns, she rolled her eyes, "How often do you do that?"

"Really depends, sometimes I like doing it, sometimes I don't, this one time actually I was travelling through a Vacuo Dust mine when I…"

What he was saying was eventually lost on Lynae, despite the fact Oro seemed like a genuine and earnest individual, he talked a little too much. She didn't particularly care for his non-stop chatter. The only thing it did accomplish was fill the long walk through the trees with a little bit of noise. Passing through the foliage she was to pick off small amounts of leaves that got caught on her golden colored pauldrons that kept the shoulders of her dark blue jacket pristine and unfolded. Beneath her jacket was a light blue top with golden lining. She was surprised Oro wasn't off put by the scar on her head, however he was perplexed by the spikes running down the side of her black and blue pant legs.

" _What is the goal of those things? Do the militaries of the kingdoms attempt to knee cap and body who comes close to them?"_

An odd character he was, that much she could pinpoint about him. He didn't say much about where he was from, just from outside the kingdoms and walked everywhere. She knew there were nomads and people who didn't want to live in the kingdoms, but he seemed to be the extreme.

For the upteenth time she noted the large black shadow of the Nevermore that had been following them, passing through the holes in the tree lines. It still the two were there, and was waiting, circling.

"Hey, Oro," she said through his chatter in a demanding way the made him stop.

"Yes?"

"That Nevermore is still circling above us."

The lizard faunus, the male one, ran his hands over his face and sighed, the rest of his bodily movements obstructed by his tattered cloak. "This again," he said somewhat silently, but not enough, "listen, as long as we stay within the treelines and stay obstructed we will be safe."

"And what if we have to get out of the treeline?"

"Then we will cross that bridge when we come to it, and I sincerely doubt we will have to leave the treelines."

"What makes you say that?"

"This place is well forested, from what I was told the city of Vale was surrounded by thick forests."

"Forests can end you know?"

"As mighty as a kingdom might be, I doubt they would be able to extend this far, especially since that war was going on," he paused. "Where you from anyway? I never asked."

"Vacuo."

"That's it? Just 'Vacuo'."

"Yeah, I lived in the Kingdom of Vacuo, isn't that all you need to know?"

"I suppose, if you want to be boring," Oro didn't bother but he could feel Lyne grimace of utter disappointment.

"Well then if you want to be so bold, tell me about yourself, where you from?"

He mulled over his answer, with him walking in front of her she could see his head bobbing to the side. "Oh, I'm from all over the place."

"Well then how about your name?"

"I already told you my name, I'm Oro."

"Not your full name."

"My full name?"

"My name is Lynae Kyanos, your told me just 'Oro'. What about your last name?"

"My last name?" His increasing perplexing look was starting to agitate the female faunus, who had to take a deep breath as they kept walking.

"Like your surname, the last name of your dad."

"I never knew, what you people would call, 'my father'."

"You people? What's that supposed to mean?" She had to remind herself that Oro, at least so far, hadn't been like some of the humans in the kingdom.

"I don't like disclosing matters of my past, but I will tell you that my concept of 'families' and 'belonging' are very archaic to that of the modern day kingdoms. To make a long story short, I never had a father, I never will, and I never want to."

His forwardness and stern tone caught her off guard, he almost seemed upset by her question. He fully stopped and turned to look her in the eyes, a simmered anger behind his ruby red eyes. He turned back around and with a quieter, sterner response said, "Now let's hurry, it's not that long of a walk. We could be there by midnight if we cut across the treelines."

"You mean you want to go into the clearing where the Nevermore could see us," Lynae pointed up and almost as if on cue came the screech of the all black feathered bird above.

Following the shadows with his eyes Oro moved over to the end of the treeline and pushed some of the vegetation aside. A slightly weathered stone temple lay on the other side of the large clearing.

"If we can make it to there, we can be safe, rest for an hour and then be there by the night."

"You think we can make it?"

"I know I can make it, I don't know about you though."

With an amused huff, Lynae slammed her two fists together, "Trust me, I'm good."

And then she lost Oro again, as he tried mocking her motions with her hands, utterly lost, "What is the meaning of this? What does this-I don't understand."

Lynae let out a sigh full of suffering and regret as she ripped the leaves in front of her to the side and made a break for it.

"Well I'm sorry," Oro said to himself with the roll of his eyes and soon following after her. "Let's hope we can catch a break."

 _ **Time Left: 10 Hours, 12 Minutes**_

 **-X-**

 _Perhaps the strongest grimm for its size is the Ursa, aptly named after its normal animal counterpart, this massive creature is as tall as most humans when on all fours. On two legs its height reaches to approximately seven feet tall. They are able to shrug off many attacks before they fall, their hide is incredibly thick and most older Ursa have been recorded to have bone plating. With admirable strength they can overturn automobiles and smash through barricades that smaller grimm such as a Beowulf, Creep, or Boarbatusk might have issues with. Usually in smaller pack of less than a dozen, and if the theories prove to be true, they appear to have lower intelligence than most grimm. They can be easily trapped and they usually resort to a head on attack rather than a scavenger type grimm would. The easiest way to kill them is to go for the side or the belly to remove them from the battlefield._

 _Grimm Operations of the Army of Mistral_

"I count...two, no three in the clearing, they're together, getting a shot is going to be difficult."

"I can make it."

 _*Crack* *Crack* *Crack*_

"Nice shot," Akihiro said peering his eyes through a scope given to him by the man from Mantle beside him. Common sniper protocol to have a spotter to concur with. The bodies of the grimm dissipating like a pill in water.

"Thank you," Carbine slammed the chamber back popping out the spent shell. The golden metal falling unceremoniously to the ground with all the others. In total, about twelve. "We should head out, no doubt the rest of the grimm would have heard that."

"Yeah, the less time we have to spend in here the better, bad things happen at night in the forest," Akihiro offered back the scope which Carbine took.

"I don't think we can avoid it, they put us up there at twilight, we'll have to find shelter soon."

"Out here?" Akihiro swiveled around at the trees.

Pressing forward Carbine hoisted his rifle back over his shoulder and managed to get a vantage point on a mossy rock. Peering through his eyeglass he could barely make out the light, the beacon on the other side of the forest.

" _How appropo."_

"It'll take us several hours to make it there, if we walk all night we could make it, but I don't think either of us are well suited for nighttime jungle exploration."

"You know, many faunus have night vision."

"And do you have night vision grizzly-boy?" Carbine waited for a response but got silence, "That's what I thought."

"Just because I don't doesn't mean someone else might, if we can find anybody then we could be in luck."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't we lose everybody after that mad monkey of a servant blew us off the side of the cliff."

"You were the one who made me sprint off said cliff, you are the reason we got separated from the group."

"I didn't want to buried."

"And the ones we left behind?"

Carbine stopped, his shoulders rising with a sigh. "Do you want to know what they taught me back at the academy?"

"Humor me."

"Those who get left behind have to pick up their pieces and catch up with the rest."

"Well that's morbid."

"Yeah...I never liked it either, but when you hear something enough you start thinking that way. Can't tell you how many times I've nearly had a panic attack now that I'm in Vale. There are some things I'll never be able to get over."

"Like?"

Carbine turned around to face Akihiro, a corner of his lips tugging into a scowl, "Why do you want to know so much about me? Can't we just leave it at that?"

"I may not have night vision, but I have a good sense of smell," when he was met with visible confusion by the man from Mantle he smiled. "My uncle always had a saying, 'You can tell where a person's been by smelling the wind in their boots'. Do you want to know what I smell from you Jeremiah."

"Don't call me by my first name, ever, but sure, tell me whatever you think I 'smell' like."

"I smell nothing."

There was a pause.

"Nothing?" Carbine asked.

"Nope" Akihiro shook his head, "I smell nothing from you."

"Well then what was all that wisdom about knowing where I've been."

"I honestly don't know much about Mantle, we were only ever told stories and I imagine some of those were grandiose. I heard Mantle was a dreary place, it was always cold, never knew a summer's day like Vacuo. I heard that the grey sky didn't just stick to the sky but the streets and the people. And we all know what Mantle did to paintings, to songs, and even books. That's why I smell nothing from you. Everything about you gives the idea of nothing discernable, a face in the crowd."

There was a small tense silence between the two, a stern yet stoic face from Carbine. "You know we are for the most part, all alone out here," Carbine said, looking to the darkening sky.

"I guess."

"So it would be a shame if I discharged my weapon while doing a routine maintenance check with you around."

"You're saying you'd shoot me?"

"I'd make sure it'd look like an accident."

"Let me apologize then, I appeared to step on a sore subject."

"Damn right you did," agitated eyes turned around to the path ahead, but for the life of him Akihiro swore he saw a hint of red in Carbine's eyes, "And Akihiro?"

"Yes?"

"Next time you blame me for what my predecessors did, next time you say anything like that, I'll be invoking Article 6."

"And what is Article 6?"

Carbine didn't answer he grunted and said, "If you're smart, you'll never have to find out."

 _ **Time Left: 8 Hours, 34 Minutes.**_

 **-X-**

 _If you see a Deathstalker, just run._

 _Vacuo Merchant Survival Guide._

If you were to look overhead the entirety of the Emerald Forest you would find it quiet peaceful despite small bursts of gunfire. One could say it was like the early days of the war when it was being used as a training ground for the soldiers. Nothing was being disturbed, except for one area, the trees rustled and some were ripped from their place. Stomps could be heard and the sound of bark groaning as it was snapped was indistinguishable. Peering through the holes in the treeline one can see little flecks of people, followed by a large black and white mass.

" _Why didn't I stay in Vacuo? What possessed me to come here again?"_

" _Oh, that's right, I needed money."_

Ilios ducked under a wide swipe taking out a nearby tree, the crash echoing in the nearby distance. As he dashed across the hardened dirt ground, his hand gripped the hilt of his scimitar so it didn't stab him in the knee. His aura was getting shot from the blowback of bark and having to slide roughly into stones and hitting trees.

Or sometimes having the trees hit _him._

Having a scarf wrapped around his hood was not the smartest idea in retrospect. Not when you have a fully grown Deathstalker running after you with its clipping claws that click unsettlingly. Stupid cave, if he ever went back to there he would make a warning for future people. They would know better then. But now, during the present moment he took a hard left to throw it off course, but with all its legs, it wasn't fooled. It must have been old, some people thought grimm got smarter as they got older, a theory from the academics in Mistral. Unproven but that would make as to right about now, it was following him perfectly. And things would only get worse as the night scared away the sun. There was only a small time until the sun retreated for the day, maybe less than a few hours.

He had to lose this Deathstalker.

Now.

He sprinted forward, used to running long distances he was, but even he was getting tired of this. He apparently drew the short straw on grimm, as numerous as they were, there just had to be just one Deathstalker and it had to be chasing him.

 _*CRACK**CRACK**CRACK*_

The sound pierced his ears, distinctive, telling, a signal. Gunfire.

He headed straight for it, keeping alive the hope that greater numbers would help him against this overgrown arachnid. The image in his head didn't look too far away, but far enough that he needed to keep going. Weaving in and out of the trees once more, the drt pierced by the sharp tipped legs of the grimm, its screeching either a sign of its anger or weariness.

He was so close now he could practically see them, and hear them. Along with some unwanted guest. Taking the final turn he pulled out his scimitar and on his roll in he sliced the ankle of a Beowulf off and slammed the blade back into its stomach. The feeling of plunging into flesh turned into resistance into lightweight as the grimm began to dissolve from the opening of the wound. When he stood up he saw two females, both humans, one smaller holding a pistol and the other much taller holding a massive sword that looked like it derived from Mistral. Around them were Beowulfs and Ilios shrugged.

"Well, I've worked with less, so this will have to do."

 **-X-**

Mono had very little clue as to what this person just meant, she barely sensed him coming in until he was right on top of her and Amid. But he sliced up a grimm, so he was immediately seen as an ally, at least for now. He was dressed in baggy brown pants that had a fair bit of dirt and have seen action. An orange shirt sort of complimented his tan skin, that and his golden hair. He wore a long orange cloak that reached to his ankles, around the neck was a scarlet scarf that differed greatly from the rest of the outfit. The man's orange eyes piercing through his persona.

What was the most interesting about him though was the chitinous plates and bits of carapace that dotted his body. Colored a different shade of brown were hard carapace plates on his face, poking out would be a better descriptor. Despite his arms being covered by the hood, Mono imagined they were present there as well.

" _An insect faunus."_ Was what she deduced, quite possible the rarest among them all, she could have counted the number of times she'd seen them. One, and it was right now.

From behind the man though came a horrific screech as trees and dirt were shoved and blown away as the large white claws of a Deathstalker came in right after Ilios.

" _Great, Beowulfs and a Deathstalker, should have never left the station."_

Ilios ran in to join them as a they formed a small circle with larger ones turning around. Most of it was the wolves, but there was the giant scorpion to worry about, that would be the issue. When Deathstalkers came, at least during the war, a lot of people died to take them down. Mono brought up her gun to the side of her face and took a breath and-

 _*CRACK**CRACK**CRACK**CRACK*_

Four shots went off, they came from behind her, she could feel the wind of one of them whip right by her face. She froze when it did, nothing could ever prepare you for the feeling of near death. However when everything came back to her, she noticed three Beowulfs falling to the ground, pieces of their skulls missing and a hole in the mouth of one. Then a scream, one of true pain came from the Deathstalker as it thrashed wildly, taking trees and other grimm with it. Rustling could be heard, as the three of them turned to see a large man holding a heavy metal slab, that was the best Mono could make of it, and swipe it across the body of a charging Beowulf. The crack and lurching of the black furry body was almost sickening. Following the large man, who Mono realized was also a bear faunus, came a much thinner person holding a rifle with stark white hair. She had seen rifles like that very few times, they were from Mantle.

Interesting.

"I am very sorry for barging in so rudely, but," the faunus said, leaning on his cross, "would you like some help? My name is Akihiro Cedar and this is Carbine. He's a bit touchy, so just call him Carbine."

The man who brought the Deathstalker smiled, "Name's Ilios Sand, glad to have you." Akihiro and Carbine joined them and turned around in a circle. "Any ideas about how to get through this?"

"Keep the Deathstalker at ranger," came the low voice of Carbine, he pulled back the hammer of his rifle releasing a spent shell casing which fell to the floor. "The only weak spots are to take out its eyes and legs. I already took one eye, but it will be on better guard for the next. If it was just the Deathstalker we'd be fine, but we have the wolves to worry about too."

The other female of the group, Amid, who had been silent since helping Mono out nodded, "I can take them out, if we dispatch the Beowulfs we can form up and take it from all sides."

"Perhaps," Ilios said, reaching back and pulling out a small crossbow along with his sword, "but that might take time."

"And we don't exactly have much time," Akihiro added.

A beowulf which had been slashing at the ground in anticipation finally lost control and lept at the group. After that, the mass of grimm followed suit.

In one motion Akihiro and Amid lept forward, sword and cross raised. Mono and Ilios turned to the side, a bolt from the crossbow and the flash of her pistol going off. Carbine jumped straight back and pulled his rifle up to his left eye, took a deep breath and squeezed the trigger. All the while the sun dipped beneath the treeline.

Night had fallen in the Emerald Forest

 _ **Time Left: 6 Hours, 46 Minutes**_

 **-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-**

 **So probably the number one thing that needs to be mentioned is that, no, I did not miss or skip any writing and no, you did not miss something, I purposefully left out Amid's intro/meeting with Mono. Two reasons, I can only do the same thing a few times in a chapter, plus I would like to keep her more mysterious. Ilios wasn't originally going to be mentioned in this chapter, but I needed a connecting point. So obviously the big question some of you might have is about character. If you did not hear anything back from me, or I did not tell you that you were "Accepted" then I am sorry but your character did not make it. The reason why I did not personally tell you was because I had many, I could have closed submissions within a day in actuality. So I am sorry about dealing with this matter so impersonally because I know some of you poured your time into making those characters. I know how you feel. You also probably figured it out by looking at my profile for the past two weeks and saw your character wasn't up there.**


	4. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Okay, so I'm going to have be a little mean here. So while I was writing this chapter some bloke, and you know who you are, asked me to keep writing this story. I get it, I've been burned by many a SYOC before, I don't think a single one I've sent stuff for has ever been followed up and it infuriates me. Do I say anything? No, because I know people have other things in their life. Sometimes life gets in the way and you can't write, sometimes you don't have the drive to write. For the past two months I have been locked into writing paper after paper for university. That takes precedence over everything else, what I do here is merely a side hobby at the very most. So the next time you think to ask 'Can you please write the next chapter' just know that this, what you see right here, is not my first priority. I find this type of shit disrespectful.**

 **PS: if you, the one in particular who knows who they are, try to say something about this whole thing, I swear to all that is good and holy...**

 **If you aren't the person I'm talking about then have a fantastic day**

 **-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-**

Chapter 3: Nothing Like Basic Training

 **-Months Ago-**

The cold ground of Mantle of was inches away from Carbine's face, the frosted tips of the dirt nearly colliding with his chin as he took a slow breath. The scope on his standard issue rifle was being adjusted ever so carefully. The day was gray, overcast like so many winter days in the kingdom. In a line were many others like him, young men, shaved heads, regimented looks. Stern faces, unyielding stares, rifles at the ready, they all were on their stomachs, hands bare and knuckles white. The wind whipped at the tips of his ears, grimacing at the slight burning sensation it gave off, but he kept his sight true.

The target was in range, he took held his breath and it felt like everything stilled around him. The howl of the wind seemed to stop, yet the bitter cold remained. The clouds seemed to stop, his lungs started to feel like they were tightened, he needed to keep his breath for a few more seconds.

" _Just a little more."_ He thought as he narrowed his eyes and adjusted his scope one last time. His finger, trained and steady, slowly he squeezed the cold metal trigger. When he felt the resistance of the trigger he released his breath and gripped the trigger so tight if it were anything weaker he might have crushed it. The concussive sound of the discharge rang in his ears, as howling wind and clouds filled the air. The scent of spent Dust filling his nostrils, pulling back the chamber covering came a golden colored shell. One after another, nearly right after he took his shot, came similar sounding rifle fire from the others in line with him. He peered through his scope again to look at the target. A hole right down the middle of the red bullseye. Just like the other times.

"Alright men, that's enough range shooting!" The gruff, rigid, yelling of the major sounded off from behind Carbine. "You're dismissed!" Carbine knew he couldn't help it, it was his job to be tough on the kids. If anything the major was probably going to surprise them with a bunks inspection. Roberts would probably need to hide his stache of...personal tabloids.

Walking back to the barracks Carbine set his rifle down and sat on the stiff cott that he called a 'bed'. He had gotten used to it, he had been forced to, if he couldn't sleep then what good was he as a soldier? He shared the barracks with many other people his age, basically kids in the grand scheme of things. Youthful they were, technically Carbine had a year on them, he joined the military academy at sixteen and they just entered. An older student was put as the head of a barracks of first year students. In terms of shooting they were like any fresh rookies, terrible in every way. They hadn't as so much as held a gun when they first arrived, but he had to keep telling himself that he shouldn't be comparing everyone else to him. He had practically been born with a gun in his hand, learned to shoot since he was maybe four or five. It was a part of his life.

But where that life was leading him he had no clue. From under his pillow he retrieved a letter, pristine and smooth, the insignia of the Kingdom of Vale pressed in wax sealing it shut. He was alone, no one was going to see him, this was fine right?

" _Let's see what royalty has to do with me,"_ grabbing a blade he slit open the fold of the letter and he began reading to himself. "I, as the King of Vale…"

 **-Present Day, Emerald Forest-**

Carbine got behind the rough bark of a tree that hadn't been toppled over just yet. Suddenly hearing the growl of a Beowulf he turned around and without looking fired two quick shots, both of which landing. One punctured the stomach and then the other in the neck, both taking chunks out of the rabid wolf like creature. To his other side came the insect faunus, Ilios he overheard his name was, proclaiming his might while knocking down another wolf. He had about insect faunus, rarest of the rare outside of perhaps aquatic based ones. He looked like he was from Vacuo, Akihiro would have probably smacked him over the head for thinking like that.

"Okay, we've nearly taken out the beowulfs, but that Deathstalker is still pissed" Ilios said, taking a peek over his shoulder, crossbow raised up. From his method and execution, Carbine could tell he was well used to holding his weapon. A trained shot too, perhaps not as good as Carbine, but so few were. The Mantle born mind of Carbine's questioned the ribbon that hung off his bronze colored scimitar, it was just asking for it to get caught on a branch and hold Ilios back. But the people of Vacuo were an odd bunch, no amount of time and acceptance would change his mind about that.

Carbine looked over his shoulder as he heard the more meger sounding gunfire of the girl who looked like she should've been in one of those moving picture shows they called a 'movie'. Her weaponry did not match military standards outside of a gun, he swore he saw her whip out a can of pepper spray on a grimm. As ineffective as it sounded he was surprised by the results. As Ilios stated the Beowulfs were diminishing, but the Deathstalker still enraged and missing an eye would chase them down until they were too worn down to even stand. The forest was too compact for a head on fight, at least for him, he needed distance and time. None of which the grimm had been known to give you.

Being a soldier was much easier than whatever he was doing now.

"I can't get a good shot off without time, and the wolves aren't giving me that," Carbine said, speaking of, as a Beowulf came around the tree the Mantle soldier swung the butt end of his rifle around and smashed into the bone like carapace and cracking it into pieces. It slumped to the floor and the black mist slowly seeped from the openings. "And if we tried to take care of all the wolves then the Deathstalker would get in our way."

"So we can't take out one without dealing with the other, but then we run into the same problem," Ilios said, dashing towards another wolf, slicing its paw at the wrist and plunging the sword into its belly.

"If we could slow the Deathstalker down, we would have a chance."

"How would we slow it down, shooting it in the eyes is only making it worse," Ilios replied, which ironically enough was followed by a ear wrenching screech from the massive scorpion.

"Deathstalkers have eight legs like any arachnid, it can probably walk on less if we take out legs equally on both sides."

"So then we take out all the legs on one side then," "Ilios finished, "but how do we plan on doing that?"

"Like I said, I can't get a shot off, not only that but taking out each individual leg would take too long for me. If we want to stop it from moving we'll need to take out the legs all at once."

"So we need a really big sword?"

"Or anything sharp enough to pierce or heavy enough to bash through a Deathstalker, from what I hear these bastards are tough as nails. I know Akihiro has a big club, but right now we need to regroup and formulate a plan."

"We're not exactly in a place to run away without getting tracked down."

"It's the only option we have right now, the Deathstalker will have to make it through the trees which will slow it down a little, and you, me, and the small girl can pick off the wolves until then."

Ilios rattled his brain for possibly anything better, but none came to mind, "Okay fine, we'll go with this for now, but know I'm not a huge fan of this."

"Neither am I, but it's the only solution we got," Carbine turned around and zeroed in on the bear faunus who had slammed his metal cross into one of the remaining wolves, "Akihiro, grab the other two! We're moving out!"

"To where?!" He yelled back from across the field, he raised his hands in a shrug.

"Anywhere but here, we need to regroup!" Carbine yelled back at him.

"But I-"

"That is an order!"

Annoyed, narrowed eyes met back with Carbine, "Fine, I'll tell the other two," from his tone Carbine knew there was going to be a talk about that.

Ilios looked back at him when Carbine started moving out, he moved at a brisk pace, "Well, you seem used to doing that."

Even though they had just met, despite the fact it was going to bite him in the ass later, Carbine sighed and turned his head back to the faunus, "Well, I was a soldier in Mantle."

 _ **Time Remaining: 6 Hours**_

 **-X-**

"Just what kind of plan was that?!" Lynae shouted at the top of her lungs, pulling back a branch to peer into the night filled forest. The corpse of the large bear like grimm, the Ursa, lay on the floor looking like it was smoldering.

Oro massaged the bruise on his cheeks, wincing at the slight pain it echoed, "So I thought I could sneak up on an Ursa, I don't see what the issue is."

"Gods you are useless."

"Hey, I have heard legends of people riding Ursa's like camels or horses back in Vacuo," Oro responded.

"Oh, yeah?" Lynae questioned, "And have you met any of these people?"

"No," Oro said meekly.

"Well until you do then you probably shouldn't be doing it. Understood?"

"Geez, I tell you I don't have parents and here you are acting like a mother," Oro pushed on past her, seeming to ignore Lynae's puffed out cheeks and tongue sticking out. "Well, now we've allowed what I fear to happen."

"And that is?"

"We've let the night catch up on us. I learned early on that you either make sure you can get to wherever you need to in a day's time, or get really good at getting enough rest within a few hours. Sleeping in caves and forest can prove dangerous, you're not the only thing that wants to sleep under the cover of shelter."

"Then let's keep moving," Lynae offered up, she moved on past Oro.

"Not the smartest idea, the grimm are more violent during the night, it's also harder to see them."

Lynae turned around, Oro easily able to see her as he came within inches of his face, "Then what do you suppose we do? You say it's too dangerous to go sleep somewhere but then you turn around and say it's too dangerous to go about. Make up your damn mind!" She sighed and walked away. "I'm moving on, you can either stay here or you can come with me, I don't care at this point."

Standing there for a few seconds, Oro had to gather his thoughts. Being that close to her was something he was not expecting. "Damn," he breathed to himself, "I'm a little turned on right now." The rustling of bushes snapped Oro out of his thoughts, cautiously he reached into his cloak and got into a defensive position. He knew it wasn't Lynae, she had gone the opposite direction, the way towards the light. This was something different, hopefully it was someone and not an evil black furred, demon of the abyss.

The rustling increased, Oro's hand gripped down near his waist, this time he stepped towards it. Slowly, not even the metal armor he wore made a sound, the canteens silently sloshing as his weight went back and forth. The bush were it was coming from soon erupted as a beowulf jumped out of him, catching his slightly offguard. From his waist he pulled out a shortsword that ran right across the chest of the wolf, but not going deep enough to cause any major damage. It just roared in anger as it felt the metal pierce its body. Oro ducked under the swing, this Beowulf looked much larger than the ones back in Vacuo. Despite them being the same species, Oro had figured out that Grimm had minor changes to their physiology in the different kingdoms. Vacuo Beowulfs were leaner and their paws more rough from running across the sands. This time as it was about to leap on him Oro used his armored arm to repel an arm off of him and he stabbed the sword through the chin right through the rest of the wolf's skull. It fell on top of him leaving him to fumble about.

"Just my luck," he complained as he managed to shake off the wolf on top of him. "Maybe Lynae was right about standing here." He was about to say something until he saw the glint of metal in the moonlight, the glare catching his eyes by surprise. He bent down and picked it up, in his hand was a really short sword, but not quite a dagger. "Well where did you pick up this?" He asked the pile of steaming grimm corpse. Thinking back, he walked over to the bush and scooted the branches away. His eyes went wide at what he found.

"Lynae!" He yelled at the top of his lungs, "I need your help!"

She must have been not as far along as he thought, a slow walker in Oro's mind, because Lynae came running back. "What?!" She half yelled out of anger and possibly worry if he discerned it. He motioned his head over to the gap in the bushes. "Oh my god," she breathed.

"It looks like we'll have to move to this Beacon as soon as possible, or she might not make it," Oro said as he looked down.

Down at the short girl with honey colored hair lying with claw marks over her body and a slight amount of blood dripping from the wounds.

 _ **Time Left: 5 Hours, 35 Minutes**_

 **-X-**

Carbine had managed to find a perch to sit atop of, holding a spyglass he usually reserved for a spotter he scanned the area.

" _Three, five, nine. Perfect,"_ he thought to himself as he got up off the ground and dusted off his stomach of the dirt and grass. He jogged down the hill putting the glass back into an inside coat pocket. In a clearing close by he caught up with the rest of the group. "Okay, so I've counted nine Beowulfs chasing after us, I couldn't see the Deathstalker directly but I was able to catch a glimpse of the destruction it was causing. It's still having trouble with the heavily wooded areas."

"Yeah, that's a good question," Ilios piped up as he rested with a shoulder on a tree, "how are we going to deal with that. The more it's out there, the more grimm will flock to it. If we don't take it out soon we may have to deal with all the grimm in the forest."

"The grimm are more an obstacle than an objective," Akihiro replied standing next to Carbine once he got over the hill. "We need to keep moving forward, it's night and fighting relentlessly against the grimm will only cause us to get lost."

"But right now, because we have that Deathstalker on our tail, we can't really do that," Ilios fought back, "don't know about you, but running through this forest with that thing on my tail doesn't fill me with confidence."

" _And who's fault is that?"_

"Well excuse me," Ilios half shouted at Carbine who was perplexed, "I didn't think that-Wait, did you say something?"

"No," Carbine looked at the faunus as if he'd gone mad, maybe that's what rabies did to them he thought.

"I could have swore I heard something," Ilios swiveled his head around madly trying to find the source of the voice.

"Perhaps all of this is starting to stress you out," Akihiro said, "would you like a back rub?"

"No, that's weird, I swore I heard a voice and-"

"Well that is all nice boys, it really is, but can we get back to the matter at hand," the three turned to the woman who had stayed silent for the most part but now had this look of pure annoyance.

She was much shorter than the guys, except Ilios in fact she might have been as tall as him maybe a little less. She was a looker, the immature soldier in Carbine's mind had to stifle a wolf whistle from coming out now that he got a good look at her. Skin colored light brown, almost like caramel chocolates he had grown fond of as a kid, unmarred. Slim waist, her body pretty decent if you were to ask him. Her hair went straight down her back and ended at her waist, the color of grey it was. When he thought about it, the color was more aligned with ash from a fire, there was a certain sheen that was unmistakable from the actual substance. Her eyes, spoke of a true warrior, the same as her hair, piercing gray like a steel sword.

The clothing she donned made Carbine think she was from Mistral. A black coat that ended at her knees that had a gold trim, if he recalled, he remembered seeing a white triangle on the back. She was wearing a kimono, at least that's what he thought they were called and he recalled they were usually longer and more elegant, red with golden flower petals emblazoned. After the short length of the kimono was a small space where he could see her legs, but then almost immediately were these thigh high laced up boots.

In her hands was a massive odachi blade, he reckoned it was taller than her and about as tall as himself. She must have been a skilled swordswoman to wield a weapon of that calibre. Currently it was in its sheath made of black lacquered wood with jewelry showing its wealth and worth. Early on Carbine had learned to distinguish the two, wealth and worth, and having both meant that this girl was not to be underestimated.

"I'm sorry, you are?" Akihiro asked kindly, smiling as he usually did.

She looked reluctant, skeptical, cautious of Akihiro, Carbine had seen this look before plastered on many of his comrades from Mantle. The eyes of a warrior, not of one unused to the barbarity of wars.

A soldier.

"Amid," she finally said, "Amid Valroya."

"Excellent, excellent, if you have an idea then I am all ears," his jovial attitude was reinforced by his two bear ears wiggling ever so slightly. Out of the group is was really only Ilios who chuckled, the bear faunus almost looked disappointed. He quietly whispered to himself, "I worked on that one too," before taking a step back, and out of the conversation.

Amid then took command and pointed back to the landscape, "A common tactic back on the battlefield was to flank the Deathstalker and take it from behind. I can cut off the legs and leave it immobile."

"How do you plan on getting around the Deathstalker and Beowulfs?" Carbine questioned with a calculated tone.

"The trees are large enough that I can climb them and avoid the pack, dropping down will be no problem. You four can go take them head on and distract them here."

"How do we make sure we can get them all here?" Ilios asked, Carbine and Amid exchanged glances before turning back to him. The way they kept an even stare at him did not fill him with confidence.

"Well," Carbine said, "we could use you as bait. I hear Beowulfs like a bit of crunch in their meals." Ilios' face paled at the thought, and the fact that Carbine's voice had remained completely neutral

"I bet they don't get insect faunus often," Amid added, again, even and neutral sounding.

"How about we don't have a plan that involves one of our comrades being used as bait and possibly eaten alive?" Akihiro offered, much to the joy of the other faunus, at least someone had some common sense.

"Have it your way," Carbine's immediate turn to the even more quiet Mono made Ilios question if he had been serious the whole time or if he had been joking. "You still have that can of pepper spray?"

Mono nodded back, pulling out the canister.

"How full is it?"

She replied with a shaky hand held horizontally.

"Hmm, only about half huh? It should be enough," he turned back to her, "I assume you have a pocket knife or some kind of blade?"

Another nod.

"Okay," he looked back to the group, "I got a plan."

Within minutes the group spread out, Amid to the near top of a tree, Carbine and Mono on the other side of a small mound, and Ilios and Akihiro-

"I thought the plan was not to use me as bait?" Ilios asked as he and Akihiro stood out in the center of a clearing.

"Well it's wrong on two fronts. One: you are not alone, I'm here as well; two: we are not being used a bait. We're the only ones with melee based weapons aside from Amid who is doing the surgical precision."

"Hmm, sure," Ilios' word didn't make him sound so sure, "I just hope they didn't make us do it because...you know."

His tone suggested he was pointing to something, when Akihiro looked he saw Ilios pointing to his carapace like splotches on his skin. His faunus trait.

"No," he sounded certain Akihiro did, "from what I can tell Carbine doesn't seem racist."

"He told me he was from Mantle."

"That doesn't mean he's racist, not all people from Mantle hate the faunus" he defended.

"I lived in Mantle for a while with my uhh...with a friend, they never rolled out the red carpet for me."

"I'm sure Carbine doesn't care," in the faint distance was a roar, with his enhanced hearing he could make out the barely audible sounds of snapping twigs. "If you want you can ask him when we're done here."

"I'll think about," Ilios replied, he pulled out his scimitar. His tongue began to click against the roof of his mouth, he could 'see' them coming closer.

Back behind the hill Carbine laid flat on his stomach, rifle at the ready, his spyglass up to one eye peering through the trees. "On my mark," he said to Mono, who held a can of mace in one hand and a small blade of a pocket knife in the other. The knife just touching the cylinder, resting at the reay. Through the tree line he saw movement, followed by the glint of red. In the night it was difficult to see the beasts, any mediocre soldier would have hesitated, but that was not what he was.

"Now!" He shouted and held his breath immediately afterwards.

Applying force onto the blade and acting likewise with Carbine, Mono held her breath as the blade pierced the metal body of the can and averted the cut away from the two of them to avoid any splash back. The high pressure ofthe volatile substance was potent in the air, the night air becoming discolored. Not wanting to waste time and gas Mono hooked her arm around the hill and lobbed the can over the heads of all four of them.

"Grenade on the way out!" Carbine shouted, an old habit that he didn't want to let go, useful it was too.

It landed in the bushes, the hissing and pushback of the leaves of where it landed. Akihiro and Ilios could both smell it from where they were, which was several meters at the present time. A potent smell, the sound, an old tactic Carbine had learned was that a constant sound was always more curious to human minds.

And irresistible for animals. Grimm included.

The shaking and thunder sounds of the leaves and grimm came rumbling in, however when they came within contact the near toxic gas sprayed them. The burning sensation throwing them into a fit or pure rage and hostility. But one of confusion, untamed, uncoordinated. The remaining wolves of the pack came out sporadically, uneven, as individuals rather than a pack. Calling them like fish in a barrel would have given too much credit to the fish.

They were more like stray ants versus a boot.

Carbine took aim at the back four, the first was pawing at its face, from the glow in its eyes he could see the faint glint of the spray on its muzzle, the burning sensation probably felt awful.

 _*Crack*_

The first slumped, a larger whole now in its eye socket. He looked over to the second one, reflexively and-

 _*Crack*_

The second one fell, the lower jaw missing. The third-

 _*Crack* *Crack*_

The first shot missed because the target moved, it landed in the shoulder, the next shot pierced its neck. Then the fourth which was making its way to Akihiro-

 _*Crack*_ _*Crack*_ _*Crack*_

There was no need to fire off three times, but he did so anyways, each shot landing in the chest. Looking back through his scope he could see Akihiro give a salute back to him. Scanning the area again he counted three more, Ilios had already dispatched on himself. Strange he remembered counting more than that when they were approaching. It surely wouldn't have-

The rush of air and the sound of gunfire filled his ears, without thinking he rolled away from where the rush of wind came from. When he got a look he saw the last Beowulf had gotten around the group, it had flanked them. Mono however had pumped two shots into its back but appeared to be fine. It stared at Carbine for a short while before growling, quickly he found a separate trigger before it-

 _*bzzz*_

What Carbine saw utterly confused him. On the ground was the Beowulf, right behind was Mono, but in her hand was a gadget which sparked electricity from a club.

"Did you just use a taser on a grimm?" He asked, mildly confused but impressed at the ingenuity.

In response Mono shrugged, silent as ever, and pulled out her pistol and aimed towards it head. Several shots, some of which seemed excessive, were fired . The recoil of the body and the lurching of its head clear as day, even in the night.

Back in the clearing there were only three of the wolves left, the metaphorical light at the end of the tunnel. They just need to hurry. Taking two wolves on by himself Akihiro blocked he swipe of one by parrying with his metal cross. Sparks rising as the sharp claws ricocheted off of it. Having to duck under the second swing which came from the one on the opposite side of him, how rude these grimm were. From his lower position he swung around in a full circle keeping one hand on his weapon, letting it swipe at their feet. The legs are weak for a Beowulf so they fell to the ground, at least briefly. Aiming at the ground he smashed the dirt, creating a small crater capable of sending the two bodies of the grimm into the air. With one downward swing he slammed the body of one Beowulf into the ground, like a spike on a railroad, with all his might. Then quickly with the other he swung around his whole body and batted away the other, launching it into a tree that he was Amid was not atop of. The way its body tried to wrap around, to accommodate to the unyielding bark.

When the wolf began to dissipate, Akihiro finally took a breath of relief, sort of ignoring the fact that there was still Ilios with his quarry to worry about. But when he heard the yelp of the final Beowulf and saw it fall to the ground he assumed Ilios got it covered.

"Alright," Ilios said removing his blade and resting it on his shoulder, "now all that's left is the-" He flinched, his eye winced and he made for the floor while yelling, "Get down!"

"What do you mea-" Akihiro didn't get to finish as the flying hunk of bark from a tree came racing towards the two. With little time the faunus raised his cross and the log didn't so much as bounce as it ran over the broadside. He managed to apply enough force so that it didn't squish him but man did it put a strain on his wrists.

When he got back up, the Deathstalker was now thirty feet from him, easily a tail's lunge away or a few steps followed by an agonizing crush. Seeing one so up close was new for him, the detail in the markings, the gouges from previous attempts to kill it, it told a story that would never be known. He pulled up his cross and Ilios got beside him, a smidgen of dirt still on him.

"You ready?" The bear asked the insect.

"These things were a nightmare to kill in Vacuo," Ilio responded, "are we really sure this girl can do what she says she can do?"

From above, in one of the trees, something dropped into the bushes, it was hard to see in the darkness, he hoped it was Amid who didn't just keel over and died on the spot. Man that would have sucked. From overhead, but behind him, came four distincts cracks, the sparks as bullets flew off the helmet of the Deathstalker.

"I thought you said that Carbine kid was a good shot?!" Ilios yelled before getting out of the way of a swipe from the claws.

"If he shoots the eyes we'll risk it going berserk again and then who knows what will happen, we need to keep it in place as much as possible."

Akihiro ducked out of a swipe and noticed the luminous yellow glow of the tail was moving, scanning. In an instance it came down trying to take down both at once. Ilios almost got hit, but he narrowly got out of the way, he could still feel the rush of wind on his chitinous plating. Slamming his cross down so it stuck inside the dirt, Akihiro held both his hands out in an odd position and acted like he was going to toss out a rope. When he threw his left hand out though a rope of pure energy, the bright color of white. The rope wrapped itself around the stinger tail and he held it down with his massive strength. He started walking back, the Deathstalker screeching in response.

"Akihiro!" Hearing his name called out, Akihiro turned to the side to see one of the pincers rocketing towards him, it was too close to avoid and he would first have to release the rope.

Bracing with a winced eye he turned his face away, "Now would be a good time Amid!"

In a flash, a single second that seemed faster than all others, nothing happened to Akihiro except feeling a slight tug of his Aura created tethers attached to the tail. A sudden rush of wind to his side as now Amid stood right next to him, she looked a little red in the face and her breathing was more labored. However the sound of the Deathstalker thumping to the ground the feeling of dirt exploding into the air caught the bear faunus completely by surprise. Amid sheathed her blade as the four legs of the Deathstalker on the left side of its body slid off the body. The corresponding claw also fell right off, the cut clean and precise. The body started to turn to smoldering ash soon after.

It was dead, the did it.

Ilios fell onto the floor and gave a massive sigh of relief, "Oh thank the gods!"

"We're still not done yet," Carbine's voice had to rip him back to reality, a sick, saddening, that included more walking.

"Okay," the insect faunus replied, "who wants to carry me?"

"I can tie you to a rope," Akihiro replied, having to stop Carbine from loading a bullet to shoot Ilios.

"Ha, you're funny," he didn't think the bear faunus had it in him, but when he felt the constriction he looked down, "guys?"

"Don't make me invoke Article 6," Carbine said beginning to walk.

"And what is Article 6?"

Carbine turned to the two faunus, "Akihiro, you can tell him."

With that he started walking, naturally the rest of them started moving too, Mono following the closest with Amid behind her.

Perhaps after an hour of walking they reached a stone temple, it may have been there before the war, it was ornate and between a massive chasm. Although the bridges connecting across the massive canyon was a little disheartening. From the back was this massive staircase, going all the way up to a plateau from the looks of it. They were tired, even Carbine's breathing was labored. In the center of the temple they saw him, the man who blew up the mountain side, the maniac of a servant.

Finley.

"Welcome young ones, allow me to be the first to congratulate you," he announced, the echoing and booming voice bouncing off the walls.

A small part of Carbine wanted to shoot him here and now, going back to Mantle didn't sound so bad at the current time. "Why are we here?" He asked through gritted teeth.

"Since you made it here I suppose you deserve an explanation," the response made Carbine tighten his grip on his rifle. "As you know, now that the War is over we have lost many settlements and some of our kingdom's greatest warriors have now retired. Or in his majesty's case has gone missing. As a result there is a hole in our defenses, one that will be exploited by our one true enemy."

"The grimm," Akihiro responded.

"Very astute young lad," Finley commended, "Yes, now that we have ceased fighting each other we must now fight together against the threat of the grimm. They are still a force to be reckoned with. Which is why his majesty has created the Huntsmen academies.

"I'm sorry," Ilios responded, "the what?"

"Normal armies can take out grimm, yes, but right now our armies are recovering and we can't ask all the kingdoms to band together because some people won't be able to get past old war wounds."

"And you think we will?" Amid said with a certain bitterness.

"I hope, as does his majesty, we sent out letters to young soldiers who we thought might be able to put aside their kingdom allegiances," he looked at Carbine and Amid, "or past prejudices. Our hope is that we can create an elite force unbeholden to the politics of the kingdoms to fight for the people of Remnant, no matter who or what they are. Be they from Mantle or Vale, be them human or faunus. The duty of these huntsmen and huntresses is for the betterment of Remnant as a whole. Since you have made it to the beacon, you five have been accepted into Beacon Academy. A group of soldiers will escort you to the academy grounds."

"You sure that's a good idea?" Carbine said, "some of them might have a problem with some of us." He wasn't inherently talking about the two faunus, his gaze also shifted to Amid.

"These men have been picked out by his majesty himself, and they have worked alongside me for nearly two years as they have worked in the construction of Beacon Academy. You can trust me when I say that no harm will come to any of you. Besides, you can all hold your own in a fight."

Grumbling from Carbine, but it was Akihiro who jumped, "Stop being a sour puss Carbine, let's just imagine everything doesn't want to kill us for a short while."

"Fine," he said after grumbling.

The five passed Finley, towards the many stairs that would lead to the soldiers to take them to their new home. He noticed the stare from the swordswoman from Mistral, there was deep hatred in her eyes. Perhaps the king didn't account for anything. He heard footsteps and turned to see a group of three. A female faunus with horns, a man who he couldn't tell what he was because of a cone hat and destitute cloak. However the third was being carried on the man's back, a human with honey colored hair.

" _I guess it still counts."_

" _*Ahem*_ Welcome, and may I be the first to congratulate you!"

His voice was going to be so sore tomorrow.

 **-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-**

 **No real note here on the end. Bye**

 **Credits**

 **Jermiah Carbine- chronoman**

 **Oro- chronoman**

 **Akihiro Cedar- Avis B**

 **Amid Valroya- DeathTheManiac**

 **Mono Chrome- ObieSenpai**

 **Lynae Kyanos- Fool Arcana Kaiju**

 **Ilios Sand- ObligatoryCoolName**


	5. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: Yo what is up ladies and gentleman? Well, finals week here on campus, as of writing this I have a final Tuesday then have nothing for the rest of the week, but I can't leave till Friday. So it should give me sometime to write something, either for this story or maybe I'll write something for one of my other neglected stories. Next semester I'll be having to take my first education class, which is an odd thing to say out loud if you ask me. I'm taking a class, in order to learn, to teach a class. You know that one meme where it's the water polo player dumping a bottle of water on his head when he already is in the pool? To me it feels like that. But enough memes, a horrible gangrene limb of society that needs to be cut off, on to the writing.**

 **-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-**

Chapter 4: Ground Zero

To say the road to Beacon was unfinished would have been like saying that Mantle and the faunus have not had the best of relation: it was a massive understatement. It felt like they just chopped down some trees, left the stumps, and prayed the armored personnel carriers they had would be able to make the journey. Every five seconds it felt like they just traversed a tree stump, either they didn't account for how heavily forested the other side of the cliff was or their driver was drunk. Seeing as how the rest of this excursion was going, Carbine wasn't sure what to put his money on. He was tired, exhausted, the battle had left him weary but for the life of him he had no clue why. He had gone on defense missions in the name of the kingdom back during the two years between now and the end of the war but nothing ever felt that...viceral. Back in Mantle things were much more simplistic it felt, for some reason he used to have this feeling that everything was going to be fine. But now, there was an atmosphere of dread. He wasn't going to admit it but when that one beowulf got the drop on him he froze, a lapse in judgement that would have cost him. A good soldier wouldn't have done that, a good soldier would have acted.

Gods dammit all.

Another bump and he growled, he felt so alone right now as the snoring of the two male faunus in the vehicle was really beginning to agitate him. Seeing Akihiro and Ilios resting side by side snoring louder than some of the mechanical mining machines back home was grating to say the least. Murder inducing to say the most. They were right next to each other too, how did that screw up with their faunus hearing, if it was bad for him then shouldn't be ten times worse for them?

" _Faunus,"_ he thought before having to slap himself mentally for thinking that. He was not his mother and he certainly wasn't his father. The idea he was becoming like him made him shiver. When he thought about it those two were fine, he had to force his trigger finger to stop twitching involuntarily when he thought about them but it was better than some of the others from back home. While not law enforcement by any means, he had been tasked with ending several brawls in the academy between the majority human population and the minority faunus population. Injuries were common, and he would prefer not to think about the fatalities. From the looks of it they both were from Vacuo, so at least they would be easy going if what people said about Vacuo. Not his soldier friends but what the general public outside of the military had said offhandedly.

He was sat right next to a window, it was dark with lamp posts every so often to light the way. He could only see the others for a split second before their faces were clouded in darkness. However every time he saw their faces he saw the one girl from Mistral giving him the stare down. Finally he humored her.

"Is there a reason why your glaring at me?" He asked, still focused on the outside landscape racing by as a shadowy blur.

"You're from Mantle, aren't you?" Cold and decisive, Carbine chuckled internally, she could have easily matched his own tone.

"And you're from Mistral," he replied, a small game of cat and mouse, "what brings you to this side of the world?"

There was silence, the tension in the room seemed to electrify. Carbine was sure nothing was going to happen, but hesitantly he adjusted his right leg to sit across his left, his ankle was within grabbing distance in case he needed the knife hidden on the ankle holster.

"I'm here for the same reason you're here," she said, his hand stopped.

"I have a hard time believing that," Carbine told her, looking at the driver turning the wheel. If it was true that he was soldier of Vale then Carbine would be able to say anything he wanted to, granted that monkey butler didn't order a report on those he was transporting. Honestly he didn't want to discuss this current topic so he shifted it to the other girl who he couldn't see right now, "Who's the other girl?"

"Her name is Mono, I think that's what she told me, she's a little interesting to say the least."

"Why's that?"

"I'll let you figure that out," she answered leaving him to huff in mild annoyance. Was there something wrong with cutting to the chase? "Did you see her weapons?"

He recalled in his mind from the time she had taken out the Beowulf, "A Johnson & Easton 9mm pistol, a stun baton, pepper spray, and I think I saw some handcuffs. Classic equipment for law enforcement for Mantle and Vale police departments."

"Impressive you could tell the gun from a few glances," Amid said.

"I don't think I can recall a time when I didn't have a gun either in front of me or in my hand."

"How tragic," she said with little emotion, "you should be honored to be trained from birth how to use your weapon."

He chuckled, "I wasn't given much choice in the matter, honor had little to do with it, still doesn't carry much weight with it if you ask me."

"Honor is what separates us from the beasts, without honor we are no better than the grimm."

"I didn't come here to talk about a warrior's philosophy okay?"

"So why did you come here? Don't think I didn't notice you dodging the earlier question"

Lightly he growled, not enough to be heard over the running engine, "I have my secrets, you have yours. I would prefer if they remained secret."

She huffed and didn't say anything else, he didn't particularly care if it was because he pissed her off or if she had nothing else to add to the conversation. The one good thing out of said conversation was that it finally drained, and sleep finally overtook him.

He awoke to nonsensical shaking hours later, if he wasn't so damn tired then someone was about to get stabbed. He opened his eyes to a still dark and starry sky, it had been a while since he'd seen a sky like that. Mantle was filled with bright lights and sometimes he wondered if the town ever stopped working, stopped moving for one instance. When travelling across the northern end of Sanus to get to the capital he had seen night skies like this nearly every night. Then when he got back to the city they disappeared once again. They were calming to look at.

Then Akihiro got back in his face.

"Good, you're up," he said jovially, Carbine's mood was much less.

He finally noticed they had stopped, the annoying hum of the engine and bumps had completely ceased. "We here?" Carbine asked.

"Yep," the faunus opened up the back door of the APC which now that Carbine looked, the man could barely fit in it, his ears nearly scraped the roof and he had to hunch out of the back metal door. "What a view!"

The rest of the group mosied out, but Carbine and Amid stared at each other, unmoving from their spots.

"Go ahead," she said.

"I'll move when you do," he replied, grabbing his rifle and beginning to inspect the mechanical contraptions within. She rolled her light grey colored eyes and started to walk towards the open air. He shifted himself before moving out himself, as he hit the step to get out he turned around to the driver, "Thanks for the ride." He didn't wait for a response before slamming the door shut, the wind whipped his hair as he felt the rush of warm air hit his neck. If there was one thing he liked about Mantle it was the cold, he absolutely despised the heat.

Carbine first thought was to look at the massive tower stretching into the sky, a bright green lantern light in the top of the tower. In the darkness Carbine could see the construction was well done for military standards. Tall, strong, and a perfect spotter's position. The rest of the compound looked not nearly as up to snuff for military procedures. The architecture was fancy, with arches and courtyards, fountains and gardens. No shooting ranges or obstacle courses, he was beginning to think there wasn't even a mess hall. The students were probably going to be forced to grow their own food like organic turnips or radishes, or whatever those weird hippies thought was sustenance.

Suffice to say, this was nothing like the military academy back in Mantle.

That was the least of his worries though, right now he wanted to get back to bed, perhaps in this poor excuse of a compound there would at least be a decent barracks to turn in to. A soldier came and lead them to their gender divided rooms. That meant that Carbine would be alone with the two faunus.

" _Drop the bad thoughts,"_ he ordered himself. Though it wouldn't hurt to have his knife close by. He couldn't really see into the room since it was so dark and they three really didn't want to turn on the lights. Ilios was still clicking his tongue and it was about to get on his nerves, thankfully when he found his bed he planted his face right on it. Akihiro eased onto his bunk and rested his heavy cross on the bed post. The bed creaked under his weight as he groaned.

"Well, looks like we made it," the faunus said.

The walls were bare, no windows to look out of, only a clock on the wall. Ilios was already gone, completely asleep and snoring away once again. Apparently running from a massive Deathstalker was tiring.

" _Not an entirely unreasonable result._

"Carbine," the Mantle soldier whipped his head around towards Akihiro who chuckled, "Lost again in thought hey?"

"Been a long day," he replied quickly, between the fights, the ride, Amid being cryptic as the gods bedamned. Military life was never as difficult as this, being told to shot was much simpler than this.

"I guess, I was gonna ask about your thoughts on all of this. Sort of weird isn't it?"

"Yeah," for once he could reply with genuine honesty, everything before that had been met with hesitation and calculation. That one word felt like the weight of the world had been lifted off his shoulders.

"What happens now?" Akihiro asked, "Where do we go from here? From fighting a war, to fighting the grimm, the battle never ends does it?"

"I suppose not, nothing is ever that simple."

"Do you think this thing is going to work, this whole Grimm-hunter thing?"

Cautiously he thought about it. Privatization of armed forces that were young and impressionable. When he saw the initial group at the hill before they were blasted off the side of the cliff, there was not a single adult over the age of twenty three he reckoned. Then he thought about the location, Vale, seen as the 'winner' of the war but in terms of number most of the fighting was done on its side of the continent. Most settlements were lost in Vale, the casualties dwarfed the others and when the other three combined Vale equalled to half of the combined total. Plus, this was spearheaded by the king, ran by the king's head advisor and putting the fact he was faunus aside there also was a military presence. Soldiers transferred them and oversaw the screening process, or perhaps it would be more fit to be called an initiation due to the cult-like way it went about it. In the forest abandoned by the military and led by a secretive group. Very little was known about the King of Vale, and now that he was missing, this only added more scrutiny to the whole thing.

"You want my honest opinion?" Carbine asked, he didn't wait for the faunus to respond, "We'll be fighting a second war in five years."

 **-X-**

"You sure you want to stay here, the doctors said she'll be fine," Lynae asked within the infirmary on the Beacon campus, a fair walk from the housing, ten minutes at the most. At least she'll get a good look of the campus. She looked down at Oro who sat in a chair, his cone straw hat removed letting his messy red hair flow free. Oro himself wasn't paying attention to Lynae, at the current moment she could excuse that, instead he was looking down at the girl in the bed sheets with scratch marks and bandages.

She was pretty, Lynae thought, even in the moonlight the girl's honey colored hair was pleasing, smooth and flowing. Oro had carried her all the way to the temple where they met Finley, apparently he hadn't thought about if people who were unconscious counted as passing.

" _Passing,"_ it rang out in her mind. Passing meant having to learn, and having to learn mixed what Finley called an 'academy' meant school, and school meant having to go to classes.

She was absolutely regretting this immediately.

"I'll be fine," Oro replied, "I'm just going to stay here a few more hours until she wakes."

"The doctors said she should wake up by tomorrow."

"Knowing how luck and everything else works in the world, I would reckon she'll wake up before that," he said, Lynae couldn't see it but he had a pleasant smile on his face, "I should probably apologize and thank you for coming back."

"Ahh, don't sweat it, I had a feeling you were going to come back pleading for me," his smile turned into a knowing grin, at least she was funny, "just didn't think you would go a find a new girl to replace me."

"It was not my intention to wound your heart my princess," chuckles left the two lifting the atmosphere in the moonlight room. "Lynae I need to ask you a favor."

"Sure, what's up?"

"That sword you saw me holding, I need you to never mention it to anyone, it would be better if you forgot it ever existed."

"Why? It's just a sword, tons of them around," she explained.

"It's...complicated where I got it from. Being in Vale with this sword might raise more eyebrows than I want to."

"Sure, whatever," she figured it was just another one of his quirks, add it to the already long list. "I'll leave you two alone, just try to get some sleep, if today was any indication, then who knows what's going to happen tomorrow."

The door closed softly, the rush of wind caught some of the girl's honey colored hair and she shifted slightly at the new sensation. Slowly, he brushed the strands back and the girl went back to sleep soundly. "There, there, no reason to wake up right now. Just rest, I remember something from the early days of my home, before I began my journey, something about nights like these. Calm before the storm, that was it. The broken moon looking calm, the stars above seeming to dance, the clouds hanging above, it all looks so peaceful. Take in these nights girl, because I can promise they are going to end soon. If what that Finley fellow said was correct, then our lives are going to have to change fast. And if there is one thing I've learned from my three or so days in the kingdom, is that you civilized people do not like change." His eyes had been getting heavy ever since the ride to the campus, he planned on sleeping once Lynae left, but that was supposed to happen an hour ago. With her gone he closed his eyes and let sleep overcome him, the warmest sleep he had gotten in years.

 **-Location: Vistral Ocean (The ocean between Vale and Mistral), Time: Concurrent-**

"Portside! Portside! We got a blip!"

"But sir! We don't have visual contact, this fog is too thick!"

 _*BLAM* *SPLOOSH*_

"Lad, you can smell the thickness of the cannon fire, you can feel the sudden chill of the air. Sanders, any luck on contacting land? Mistral or Vale?"

"No sir!"

"Aye then, if he wants a fight then we will damn give him one. Load the portside guns! Sanders, try to keep calling home!"

"Aye sir!"

"What are we even fighting sir?!"

"Lad, you ever hear of the legends of the Lost Sailor's Ship? Tales coming back from the war about how the angry spirit of the sailors took over a vessel and now roam the seas for vengeance. Led by a mad captain how disobeyed orders and was lost at sea. Congrats lad, because you get to see it. Prepare to fire on my mark! Ready! F-"

 _*BLAM*_ _*BLAM*_ _*BLAM*_ _*BLAM*_ _*BLAM*_

 **-Location: Beacon Academy Campus, Morning-**

Waking up at the same time was a mechanical like action for Carbine, everyday back at the academy he was forced to wake up at the same time, during the winter it would be pitch black. Those who didn't figure out that they needed to wake up were subjected to ridicule from the others, something he was not targeted by or participated in. It was the end of the summer season, so mornings still had that odd feeling of being sometimes warmer than a Mantle summer day at noon. He hated the heat, he found it stifling at the best of times, the cold was never stifling, the cold never made it unbearable to move. The other two were still asleep, if the mounds of their form in the blankets were anything to go off of. Then again, Akihiro could probably wake up a whole platoon with his snoring. How they didn't get noise complaints from anyone else was a mystery to him.

Now that the scenery was visible than in the dark of night, he only questioned the purpose of this place even more. Vast arches, with bushes and hedges, walkways made out of carefully constructed stone tiles. Fountains and statues sprinkled throughout the grounds. His eye twitched, was this a castle or a military academy? However it would be impossible to miss the giant tower towards the front of the campus. That must have been where they lit the lantern for all to see. The scent and feel of something warm wafted by his nose, it was unmistakable.

" _Breakfast."_

The dining hall was large, well more like tall, sort of like the castle in Vale, massive heights for no good reason. At least the tables and chairs were uniform and not made of porcelain or something stupid and needless. He approached the line of cooks.

"What are you serving?" He asked.

"Waffles, eggs, bacon, and sausages," came the nasally reply of the older woman.

"I'll take some eggs and waffles,"

"Got it," it was clear she didn't enjoy her job, her tone and the way she slapped the poor waffle on a plate and shoved it to him. A small part of him felt sorry for the way she cracked the egg on the frying pan.

There were not many people up, a select few that found a way to make it out of the rooms. Thankfully he didn't have to talk to them, because a small newsstands was posted in the corner where he took the local newspaper, "The Vale Times". Not the most creative name out there, but wasn't like he wanted to debate a name change. The pages were flipped through rapidly, weather, economics, the funny pages all went in a blur until he reached-

" _World News,"_ he said to himself, " _Council of Vale to take first term at the start of the week. Mantle worker's riot continues for second straight week, no end in sight."_ He put it to the side while he munched on his eggs and divied up he waffles into small bits. Unfortunately it was plain, a bit of syrup would have gone a long way. What good was it being bland and plain?

" _I smell nothing from you."_

Why Akihiro's odd analogy stuck in his brain at that point was a question that Carbine would have to answer another time. What a fool he was, Carbine had seen plenty, done plenty, done more than most should actually. If that blasted faunus knew the things he had seen then he wouldn't be so insightful. And what that Mistral brat, Amid, was saying last night was stupid as well. Honor? Should be pleased that he was trained? That all went out the window when the rifle was invented, when combat could be done from long distances. Fools who used sword and blade always died first, if not for their poor choice in weaponry then for the common mindset all of them share: bravery.

Carbine was not brave, he was precise, he listened to orders, he didn't hesitate, he acted as one with his weapon. He didn't believe in honor, he didn't believe in making foolish decisions that got you killed, and he certainly didn't need to be told by an outdated weapon using bitch in a kimono.

" _You're very angry a lot, aren't you?"_

"Shut it, I want to be-" Carbine's head suddenly whipped round as he searched for the voice in his head. It was definitely not his own, his voice did not sound effeminate the last time he checked. It wasn't until the third time he swung his head around that he saw the source of the voice. The girl from earlier, the one with handcuffs and the pistol.

"You're Mono, right?" He tried to remember her name, and honestly right now he couldn't give much of a crap what her name was. In response she nodded and his eyes narrowed. "So how'd you do that? Semblance?" Again she nodded, "Listen if you want to talk to me go ahead, but if you're just going to stand there and nod then you can leave me alone." She left, quaintly walking away from him, "Thank god."

However his frown deepened when a plate clattered a few minutes later followed by Mono sitting down in front of him. He was thinking about walking off with his newspaper and- " _Don't take the newspaper anywhere,"_ her voice, at least what he thought was her voice, echoed in his head, " _I need to read the local headlines."_

He rolled his eyes and handed her the local section of the paper, still keeping the international for himself. To keep her out of his eyes sight he lifted up to his face.

" _Interested in the Mantle riots are we?"_

The newspaper fell immediately down and the look on his face was not pleased in the slightest. "Okay, ground rules you little telepath," he growled, it was easy to pick up on.

" _Fine, fine, I won't comment on your thoughts and you won't shoot me, deal."_

There was one thing worse than a telepath, a telepath with a bit of snark. Even worse than that was a telepath who denied you from making statements. Deciding that it wasn't worth shooting her, he merely picked up his plate and abandoned his newspaper with the little brat. Then a bell rang out, there must have been an intercom system put in the corners.

"All personnel are to report to the auditorium in fifteen minutes, this is a mandatory meeting," the voice said, scratchy and mechanical, just like the radio communications in the field.

Keeping an eye on the girl he made his way to the auditorium, and find a seat very far from her.

 **-X-**

Finley nervously adjusted his tie for the tenth time, the stage was set, the light murmur of the children could be heard from behind the green curtain. He could see his microphone center stage, he pushed back his long frizzy hair. Perhaps the king was right when he told him to get a haircut?

" _Your majesty…"_ he thought.

Finley had to shake his head, the king was away now, his majesty had trusted him in running Beacon until he returned. That didn't mean he wanted to do this, he was a butler, trained his whole life to adhering to rules and orders, never making the rules or giving the orders. The murmurs were getting louder, more people were filing in.

These past few days, weeks, months, and years had been rough on him. When the king had gone to Vacuo, Finley had been there on the front lines, as a strategic advisor and not a soldier though. The nights were rough, he wasn't cut out for military life, the faces of soldiers on gurneys and those laid to rest still came back to haunt him late at night. He was too human, ironic that he was a faunus saying that, too emotional. The king wasn't, he couldn't afford to be, a man leading a kingdom of thousands could not worry about every single soul in his borders. That's how usurpers rise up, like vipers in the fresh meadow grass. When the king had left, only Finley knew where he was going, but that was two years ago now, Remnant knows where he is at currently. The other advisors yelled at him, shouted at him, and a few even left their post. Not just for the king's disappearance but for the creation of the Council, the king's last decree before taking off. All the power they had accumulated was now gone, in the hands of the people. It wasn't like some of them couldn't get elected though, however it was the end of their political careers when the monarchy changed. They were warned though, the king had always said once the war was over things were going to change for all of us. However, even Finley had to agree with the sudden transition that no one was utterly prepared for. The king always did like surprises.

He was nudged to his side, a soldier turned volunteer to help run Beacon, all the soldiers here had volunteered to help out in the king's final request. It was time, the make or break point for this whole operation. The hopes and dreams of the final King of Vale would be tested the hardest tonight.

He took a step onto the stage. The crowd's murmurs dropped to sudden silence, the air stopped moving, the dust stayed still, the lights burned his eyes blocking many of the upclose faces. The way his shoes tapped on the wooden platform stage, the way his back stayed straight, his monkey tail flat and moveless, it dragged on the ground ever so lightly. The microphone sat parallel with his mouth, his bushy facial hair almost touching it.

"Welcome," he said at first, it was simple, commanding, nobody turned away from his gaze as he scanned the crowd. "May I first say congratulations on making it to Beacon Academy. This has been the culmination of hard work and secrecy over the past two years. I have already told you the goal but let me make it much clearer. When the war ended, the armies of the world were devastated, no one on either side left unscathed. But the fighting is not over, it has been going on for generations. I am of course talking about the grimm, they fight against us this very moment and yes we could wait for our militaries to grow strong again to fight them but we do not have that time. Which is why the King of Vale has created Beacon Academy for Huntresses and Hunters."

"As some of you might be aware, hunters and huntresses are names we've given to people who have actively fought the grimm, even during the war. This title has only ever been used to describe people outside of the kingdom walls, people who are dwindling fast, while we haven't noticed it here inside the walls, some of you may have had first hand experience with the grimm. The purpose of this academy is train the young souls of those on Remnant to fight against the grimm. To be the huntsman and huntresses, to fight the darkness. I know some of you may still harbor hate towards the other kingdoms, be they from Mantle, Mistral, Vacuo, or even here in Vale. To that I say that while you will be in Vale for the majority of your training, you can choose not to be affiliated with any kingdom, I just hope that you will use the gifts we give you to help the people of Remnant.

He coughed into his fist, not to clear his throat but to get a better view of the crowd, to see their reactions.

"I will not lie to you, this will be tougher than any training you have received before, whether that be from your military life, training, or travels. The creature of grimm are not human and are not susceptible from the same faults as we faunus and humans are. They will kill at all costs and do not believe in surrender or mercy. So, with that being said, if you wish to walk out now no one will fault you."

He waited, and waited, and waited.

"Of the original one hundred and fifty letters sent, sixty eight of the recipients are sitting in this room."

Murmurs, whispers, shocked voices among the crowds as they looked back and forth among their peers. He silenced them with a raised hand.

"When we sent the letters, we knew some of them would not make their way back. Some possibly threw them away, some recipients may have died, or the messengers may have never made it. Of the original one hundred and fifty, on the night of your initiation, there was a little over a hundred. Only about thirty were not able to complete the task at hand. As I said earlier we have built Beacon in secret for the past two years, but tomorrow that ends. We plan on going public in the newspapers tomorrow, there will be no secrets about the goal the king put forward. We will continue orientation in a little bit, you will meet the instructors from around the world, and you will be given dorm assignments. Good day to you and may there be peace on Remnant."

He walked away, straight back, murmurs in the crowd, just as he had entered. The soldier from earlier gave him a thumbs up and a stupidly wide smiled. Guess he wasn't so bad after all. Perhaps the king wasn't so nuts when he was placed as Acting Headmaster until a replacement could be found.

 **-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-**

 **Long story, short, nothing really happened this chapter, I got done with finals this week, got home yesterday so now I'm tired as all hell. We did learn that Carbine is sort of a jerk, we might see more of that. Need to play more Smash Ultimate but my Switch is deciding to be stupid. How do I practice my ROB gyro combos and Ridley now? I should be getting it resolved by the end of the week. Until then, see ya later suckers.**

 **Credits**

 **Jermiah Carbine- chronoman**

 **Oro- chronoman**

 **Akihiro Cedar- Avis B**

 **Amid Valroya- DeathTheManiac**

 **Mono Chrome- ObieSenpai**

 **Lynae Kyanos- Fool Arcana Kaiju**

 **Ilios Sand- ObligatoryCoolName**


	6. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: I climb out of the abyss to bring you this chapter. As usual busy, busy, busy with college. I'm on spring break right now and I'm currently cutting in on time between doing academic papers to write this. Welcome to doing this for a hobby.**

 **-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-**

Chapter 5: Contact

Asking a Mantle soldier to give up his gun was like asking a Mistralan poet to give up his quill, utterly preposterous and led to backlash. That backlash being grabbing the poor fool who asked Carbine for his gun so it could be inspected ended up getting pulled from his desk and slammed to the floor. Was it extreme? Yes, quite so. But there came a point when having your boot holding down one soldier while fighting off another two, you didn't really care anymore what happened. Weapon inspections, pah, he did that at least four times a day regularly, he knew his gun worked just fine. What would a Vale soldier know about Mantle firearms anyways? Now in hindsight, beating up a soldier who was on home soil was probably a dumb move, but it wasn't his job to think about those kind of decisions. What he was currently sat in would barely qualify as an office by military standards, just a bare desk across from two wooden seats. The ticking of the clock almost lulling to sleep with a hypnotic rhythm.

 _*Tick-Tock*_ _*Tick-Tock*_ _*Tick-Tock*_ _*Ti-SLAM*_

The sudden swing of the door made his ears perk up, not surprised though, a Mantle soldier is never surprised. However the _*click-clack*_ of heeled shoes did make him raise an eyebrow. A rush of wind breezed past his face and the slight aroma of of blueberries. He kept his vision narrow like a soldier would but his eyes wavered slightly and caught a glimpse of ebony hair, long and completely impractical for military life and the pale white of a lab coat. Then he saw the woman step into view and pulled the chair on the other side of the desk, the scowl on her face probably would have made civilians crack, but after dealing with an abusive drill sergeant you get used to it. In her hand was a manilla envelope, her leaf green eyes peered as she cracked it open enough for her to see it while overlooking himself. She had sharp features, very pale skin but Carbine could tell she wasn't from Mantle, the people from the northern kingdom tended to be deathly pale like Carbine. She may have been from the northern end of the Vale or possibly the joint settlement of Argus Mantle and Mistral set up about a year or so ago.

"Jeremiah Carbine-" she opened her mouth after a few seconds.

"Carbine," the soldier replied, cutting her off, icy tone fitting someone of his origin.

"Carbine," she replied, a droll voice to match his, possibly only filled with more vibrance than the dry tone of the soldier across from her. If she was annoyed before she probably be annoyed later. "Ex-military from the kingdom of Mantle, son of-"

"No family history," he growled, "you can read, and I don't need to hear it repeated."

The woman sighed and ran her hand over her face in exasperation, "I am Doctor Verdant, I am the head medical professional and I am in charge of student evaluations at Beacon Academy," Doctor Verdant introduced putting his file down, the contents on display including pictures of himself and a few documents a bit too far out of reading range. "Do you know why you're here?"

"Because I kicked the ass of some of your soldiers," Carbine replied keeping his arms cross.

"And why did you do that?" She went on, in that tone of voice that sounded like she wasn't going to stop until he just spit it out.

"He tried to take my gun," Carbine motioned to the back corner where his rifle rested.

They never did manage to take it away from him.

"Now is that all?" the doctor pulled out a pair of glasses that graced her small nose and the ears covered by her black hair.

"If there is something you want to ask, spit it out," he put bluntly.

She pulled some of the files closer, "I told you I'm in charge of evaluating the state of the students which in include psychological evaluations. You are a soldier from Mantle in the Kingdom that won the War over your own. It wouldn't be crazy to harbor feelings of resentment for the soldiers of Vale or the other students from Vacuo or Vale."

Carbine's scowl widened, if he were to scowl any more it might break his jaw. That's what this was all about? He rolled his eyes, he couldn't be damned what she thought. "I can firmly tell you that I am in full control of my faculties, I don't hate the soldiers of Vale. You just don't touch my gun and everything will be fine."

The answer didn't seem to stick with Verdant who raised her eyebrow quizzically, "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Whether she believed him or not was a different question, all she did though was pull out a pen from her lab coat pocket and start writing notes on some of the documents within the folder. "Well if you are sure there is nothing influencing your decisions, then there is nothing I can do about it. However as your counselor at Beacon I am going to recommend that you avoid sudden outbursts like that again. Even though you passed the initiation, expulsion is still a punishment at this academy."

Carbine, not letting his thoughts be spoken aloud, stood up from his seat and made his way out the door after grabbing his rifle and swinging it on his shoulder. "Understood."

"If," the doctor said emphatically, "you ever have any problems while at Beacon, please feel free to discuss them with me."

His boots stopped in the middle of the doorway as he stared out past the open hallway letting natural sun in through the archways. "Yes, ma'am," he resumed walking into the midday sun.

 **-X-**

Akihiro held up the large, formal uniform jacket in their completely different room. White walls with two beds and two desks with a closet on both sides. His metal cross rested on the wooden bedpost where the sheets were folded to perfection. However the more he looked at them, the more he began to wonder if he could fit in the bed. The dress shirt was sort of like his own, albeit not at all frayed at the ends or stained with flecks of dust like his was. He supposed he could just wear his current attire for fighting, no reason to ruin another. Although there were two more sets of them in the closets. Perhaps they were expecting the students to destroy them in a cafeteria brawl.

That wouldn't happen would it?

Student had an odd ring to it, school had never been something he'd ever had to do before. Reading? Writing? Basic arithmetic? Sure he could do that, but do it everyday? For who knows how many years before he becomes this 'huntsman'. If his Uncle could see him now, he even made a friend. Well, as much a friend as Carbine could be. Between his cold exterior, his frosty demeanor, and his itchy trigger finger it would probably be best not agitate him too much. Breaking the news to Carbine was not gonna be easy. However when the door opened he knew fate did not throw him a bone.

"You have got to be kidding me."

In fact it threw a frosty demeanored, cold exterior, trigger happy ex soldier from Mantle.

"If it makes you feel any better, I had no hand in this," Akihiro had to bite back a snicker as Carbine usually unmoving face twitched ever so slightly. He just stood there in the doorway, for minutes, if anything he was letting a draft in. "Well don't just stand there, make a decisions, out or in. I'm gonna get cold."

In a quick, completely unsurprising move, Carbine merely scowled and closed the door with him on the opposite side. Also he muttered something along the lines the likes of which Akihiro didn't even know were curses and swears. Sometimes having decent hearing wasn't always a good thing.

 **-X-**

Ilios clicked his tongue as he strolled through the plainly colored hallway, the unnaturally yellow lighting acting as a road map for these corridors. The clicking went along with some merry tune stuck in his head, didn't know which one though, probably some jazzy tune that had just been invented recently. He was still a little miffed about not being roomed with Akihiro, honestly after having a total of an hour being stuck in the same confines as him, he would rather sleep with a wordy Mistralan poet hopped up on caffeine then be stuck with the soldier from Mantle. Carbine had a certain edge that was unnerving, much like the youth of Mantle, and although he hadn't personally seen or hear it, Ilios was willing to make a bet that he held traditional views on the faunus. During the drafting of the Vytal Accords there was a roadblock on faunus slavery lasting for several days, the rural areas had much of their economy steeped in the slave trade. However Mantle's entire economy was affected by slavery, they were still feeling the effects of the post-war recession.

There was many a time when Ilios, a free born faunus, had been subjected to racism while living in Mantle. Even a few traders tried to get him, lucky that he had his...friend to help him out. The paper going between his fingers was now getting frayed and torn, three numbers, three little numbers that were capable of causing more fear than they had any right to.

His room assignment.

Rather than going through the basic orientation like the majority of the one hundred students did, he decided to walk about and take in the entirety of the academy for himself. However why he saw some soldiers being carted off to an infirmary tent was beyond him. They probably tried to pull a prank and ended up getting hurt, at least that's what he would do.

" _123, 125, 127, ah ha,"_ he counted as went past doors, " _129."_ He looked down to confirm with the slip of paper, he was correct. " _New roomate, new life, here we go."_ He opened the door with his usual clicking.

It stopped when he saw the bare naked ass of a man with red hair and scales standing in the middle of the room. In fact he swung the door so fast ended up biting his tongue. He looked again at the paper to see if he was right, maybe he had mixed up, maybe somebody gave him the male restroom. He highly doubted that with a faunus like Finley here that he was going to be forced to live in a bathroom. Still though, he really didn't need to see bare ass, part of him was now preferring the disposition of Carbine all the more. Ilios' heart skipped a beat when he heard the click of the door handle when the knob twisted. He closed his eyes and kept his face away from the doorway. A pregnant silence ensued and Ilios felt a dribble of sweat slowly cascade his pale gray face.

"Well are you gonna stand like that all day?" A rather quippy voice asked behind him. It was only now that Ilios realised he had spread out his arms as if trying to keep the door frame from leaving the hallway.

"Just," he said with a shiver, "one thing."

"I am not naked," just from the tone of voice alone, you could visualize the eye roll.

Taking whatever word the stranger had after being buck nude on a first floor room with a wide window, the insect faunus slowly swiveled on his heel with winced eye in case he was going to get a first row seat to the banana expo. Luckily, he was wrong, a tattered cloak covered the man, but that was it. His exposed, scale littered legs proved that all he had on was the cloak.

" _Do not. Click,"_ he told himself, he did not need that mental image if he did. The insectoid warrior took a deep breath and did his best to look the red haired man in the eyes, same as his hair. A fiery red at that too, like the blaze of a campfire or the magma of a volcano. "Are you," he finally started, "roomed here?"

"Hmm?" The man sounded off, "oh yes, yes, yes. 129, at least that's what it said on that little slip of paper those soldiers gave me."

Dammit so this was his new roomate" _Hmmm, soldier from the land that wrote the book on faunus slavery, or nudist faunus,"_ Ilios weighed which would be worse out of the given. The issue came about when he couldn't really decide.

"You must be my new roomie," a bare arm stretched out from the cloak which revealed more of his body. Ilios had to breathe, just breathe, "the name's Oro. Pleasure to meet you…"

Reluctantly and making sure his head didn't look down lower, which was harder since he was much shorter than Oro, and shook his hand lightly, "Ilios Sand, I'm from Vacuo."

"Your last name is Sand and you're from Vacuo?" a quizzical eyebrow raised on Oro's face, "That's a little on the nose."

"At least I don't stand in a room fully nude," Ilios shot back.

"Oh you civilized types and your quirks," the lizard faunus shrugged off.

Civilized, this guy was calling Ilios civilized? Ilios was from Vacuo, the one kingdom regarded as a desert wasteland until you get the capital city and even then there's usually a riot on the weekends. He was mercenary who has done his own fair share of dodgy deeds, he had been to Mantle and been criticised for being a faunus. And this guy was calling him civilized.

What kind of whack job did he get for a roommate?

"Could you just put some clothes on dude?" Ilios asked pushing past him and entering the room.

"Fine, fine, fine," Oro sighed and closed the door.

Hearing the drop of the cloak caught Ilios' attention, and forced him to turn around to see Oro naked once again, this time for the front.

"Okay," he said with eyes closed once again, "I walked into that one."

"Well make up your mind," Oro responded, "on or off?"

"Just get dressed," he had half a mind to pull out his sword and swipe something or someone. Hearing the clank of armor Ilios felt safe to turn around and thankfully there were no surprises. An eclectic collection of metal armor Oro had, no piece seemed to match each either, and those that did were in differing condition. Scratches and scuffs on some sides and pristine with little dirt on others. No real difference in color as he looked at the lizard faunus. Red hair, red eyes, and red armor, kind of like a giant walking red pepper with how slim he was.

"If you're gonna stare at me then maybe I should have kept my clothes off," the shit eating grin on Oro's face almost made the other faunus punch him in said grin.

"Okay, ground rules," Ilios stated, "no being naked unless the end of the world."

"Sounds reasonable," Oro replied, "now ground rule number two. We have a secret knock to make sure it really us who are entering and not some foreign entities. And besides I've always wanted to make a secret code."

As his eyebrow twitched, Ilios began to think bunking with Carbine was looking better.

 **-X-**

"So let me get this straight," Akihiro sat on bed opposite of Carbine who was busy inspecting his rifle, "you attacked a soldier, which then brought on three more soldiers, you then were forced into a meeting with a counselor? All because…"

"You don't touch my gun," said gun was currently being put back together as the final screw was put back in place, "you'd be wise to know that."

"You have issues you know that right," the faunus rolled his eyes, "they took a look at my weapon and handed it right back at me. No harm no foul."

Carbine looked to the corner at Akihiro's weapon, "Forgive me for saying this, but your weapon is a slab of metal. Not a Model 315 Mantle Rifle from the leading kingdom in technological innovation, be they used for domestic tasks or war."

"You'd honestly think they'd steal your rifle because it's from Mantle?" Akihiro asked.

"Oh they wouldn't steal it per se, they'd just have to inspect it in a private room far from where I am and say that there was a slight problem with it so they took it to their military base for 'repairs'," he added little air quotes after resting the rifle in the corner barrel up.

"You're paranoid, has anyone told you that?" a chuckle left Akihiro's lips.

"Rather have my eyes always open then always closed."

"Or, you could just respectfully tell the soldier to not take your weapon," the faunus offered.

"I did," Carbine's flat face replied, "I said, 'take my rifle and I will promptly beat you to a delirious pulp'."

It was hard to tell if Carbine was born with the inability to display humor or if he actually meant it. His tone, his eyes, his whole aura just exuded a droll and dry persona that made understanding any hidden meaning behind his words like a maze of mystery hung in enigmatic fog.

"Just," ignoring the whole situation, "try not to do that. I would hate it if my new friend got into trouble on the first day of classes tomorrow."

Yes, classes, that's what they should be worried about, "When's our first one?

"Oh, I want to say nine in the morning, nothing too crazy."

O-nine hundred hours, nowhere near as strict as the military academy in Mantle, he usually woke up at o-four hundred hours for drills.

"Do we know what the class is?" Carbine asked.

"No clue, they've been pretty tight lipped on the whole thing. Although Amid, Ilios, and myself were all betting that there would be some kind of grimm based studies since we're supposed to be hunters."

"Yes, that would make sense."

"You still think this is gonna work?"

"Hunter has always been an unofficial career, even before the War known beyond the walls of the Kingdom, we never had them in Mantle because villages outside the walls didn't exist. They either froze to death or were barred exodus from the kingdom so I have no experience with anyone claiming to be one of these hunters."

"My uncle used to tell me stories when he got home about hunters, sort of hating them since they never chose a side in the war, thought they betrayed their kingdom for not fighting."

"I can see that, those who refused to be drafted in Mantle were thrown in prison."

"That why you joined the military?"

Carbine's cold glare alone answered that question, "I had my reasons."

 **-X-**

Headmaster Finley watched the night sky above the city of Vale from his high view of the Beacon Tower. The giant oil lantern behind him glowing green adding the unnatural glow around the room. His wrinkled hand laid atop the ornate wooden desk with papers loosely strung about, the mechanical groan of the elevator in the back of the room signalling an approach. Looking dead on in the window the two doors slowly opened with a figure leaving. His still keen sense of smell noticing the pungent smell of smoke from a cigarette.

"Are your lessons prepped?" Finley asked.

"Of course darling," a feminine voice replied with the sound of a deep exhale expelling more smoke into the air.

"Need I remind you that I do not appreciate you smoking in my office Miss Morgan," Finley turned around.

"That's Professor Morgan now," Morgan said with a chuckle, she took one last inhale from her long and slim cigarette holder held by her even longer and slimmer fingers. She was elegant, blonde and silky smooth hair, with rounded corners around her clean and unblemished face outside of the black beauty mark below her ruby red lips. Finely manicured nails that were as sharp as her words and tone. Smooth, long legs lead to a ruby red business skirt suit accentuating her heavenly figure. Haughty eyes the color of the ocean blue about as dangerous as the sailors claimed. Calm one moment and then furious with deadly appetite the next.

"You're little students will know all about Dust, are you worried?" She walked up and mocked him with her tone.

"I'm more worried that your smoking is going to set off an explosion in one of the new buildings his majesty paid for," Finley harshly commented, to which Professor Morgan scowled.

"I know good laboratory habits, I didn't get to where I am if I didn't," she huffed.

"That remains to be seen."

"You," she pressed her cigarette holder closer to him, "and the king both asked me to be here, you needed a Dust researcher who would be willing to leave their research for this petty experiment."

"I would hardly call the Hunter Project 'petty' professor. We need a defense against the grimm and standing armies are not going to be the way to do it. We send out an army of fifty and forty will come back. We are already beaten and battered from the War and we don't need to start hemorrhaging troops again. The people would be in the streets asking for a different solution."

"The people are fickle, during the War the King would make one comment and he would have a thousand supporters, but if he said the opposite they would do the same. He wasn't a king, more a sheep herder."

"I would ask you that you do not speak ill of his majesty while standing in the facility he dreamt to protect not only Vale but the rest of Remnant. If you would prefer I can order the troops take you back to the capital where you can continue your research Professor Morgan."

Her scowl persisted as she walked out of the room, muttering something under breath as her figure swayed back to the elevator. She wasn't the first pick Finley would have advised the king on taking, but after a few dropped out of the contention they didn't have much choice. An expert on Dust sure, but when the other advisors in on the Hunter Project gave backa report the words 'Massive Bitch' were written in bright red ink.

Or blood.

It was honestly a little hard to tell.

Tomorrow was the big day, the start of something new, something possibly awful or glorious. As Finley started out towards the massive expanse of ocean separating the school from the town of Vale. To the castle, to the homes with women and children in them, to craftsmen and laborers, to the doubters of his majesty's swan song to save Remnant.

To save it from...her.

"Wherever you are sire, I promise to carry your wishes, until the end of my days."

 **-X-**

Waking up early was like any task for Carbine, done with precisions and mechanical repetition. The same time every morning, he rose the same way, but when he found he was in an unfamiliar room than that of the barracks from Mantle it threw him off. It took him a short while to remember where he was, regretfully so, the late summer sun peeking through the windows. The nightstand next to his bed was where he reached for his timepiece, 'o-six hundred it read. Without thinking he reached for the crimson curtain and flung it open.

"Aw dear gods, what is wrong with you?" The grizzly sounding voice from a mound of bed coverings growled.

"Oh right," Carbine replied with little empathy, "you're here."

"I live here now, as do you," Akihiro's head poked from underneath the covers, his two ears poking right above his hair. For perhaps the first time, Carbine saw him without a smile. It was almost refreshing. "What are you doing anyways? Classes are in three hours."

Carbine blinked blankly at him, "I can no longer sleep past o-six hundred anymore, it will take time to adjust my sleep schedule."

"Fine, just," the large mound of Akihiro turned over, "be quiet, you don't need to make noise while us normal folk are still trying to sleep."

"Understood," Carbine walked over to the corner and looked at the closet and scowled. Those dreaded uniforms were in them, and he was going to be forced to wear them. Among the multiple reasons for leaving the uniform society of Mantle was because he hated wearing those damned uniforms. So instead of dreading on the inevitable he grabbed his gun and began inspecting it. Again.

Soon the minutes turned into the few hours that needed to pass for Carbine to legally open the blinds or be turned into bear food. He was still met with grumbles.

"It better be a more reasonable time," Akihiro told him.

"It is 'o-eight hundred hours, it would do you good to get ready and get some food at the mess hall before…," Carbine paused to let it sink in, "class starts." Still felt wrong to say.

"Fine, I'll get up."

Carbine watched him try to move, and if the Vacuo translation for 'get up' was to flop out of bed unceremoniously and fall face first then Carbine truly had much to learn about the culture of kingdom to the west of Vale.

But that was for another time, "I guess I will see you in class then." He opened the door and shut it, only receiving some kind of muffled response from his roommate.

How he hated this uniform, it was too stiff on his shoulders. A burgundy color so dark it almost appeared black with goldish trimmings. It was like he was a one of those marchers in a parade band and he absolutely despised it. It was also itchy too and the necktie felt like it was trying to strangle him. He noticed a few other students but paid no attention to them, although he noticed their stares. Eventually found the location of the classroom after grabbing an apple from the mess hall, sparsely filled with more students.

Classroom 231 was empty by the time he arrived, a good half hour was between now and class. It was a lecture hall, like many back at the military academy back in Mantle, rows of seats elevated after the next. Supposedly if there was one hundred students it looked like this room would only fit fifty at the very most.

" _Division of the students,"_ he calculated, " _interesting."_

" _I was thinking the same thing."_

Carbine jumped and swung his fist toward the wall next to him as the sudden voice startled him and his reflexes kicked in. The thump of his fist hitting the wall reverberated back and the slight light blue glow of his aura kicked the other side of his arm was that accursed telepath.

"I thought I told you not to do that Mono," Carbine growled.

" _Well, you're not my chief, so you can't order me around,"_ she 'told' him, his eye twitched as she moved past him. " _You're a little early aren't you?"_

"I could say the same thing," he replied, "I like being early."

" _That is one thing we have in common, no doubt Ilios and Akihiro will want to sit together. Amid said she wanted to know more about you so I imagine she will join us."_

"You get unlucky and room with her?" She nodded in response, "Same, I got Akihiro, I don't know what happened to Ilios."

" _I imagine he will tell us later, now move I want to find a good seat,"_ she pushed Carbine away from the door frame into the classroom which made his eye twitch again.

The room was clean, as it had only been built recently, a massive chalkboard and a desk at the front accompanied by the aforementioned rows leading to the back. Mono, being one to stay out of the limelight, chose a seat in the middle smack dab in the middle of the whole room. A smart choice in Carbine's eyes, perhaps she could be sensible when she wasn't prying into his mind.

" _I heard that,"_ it took much concentration not to strangle her or use the knife hidden in his boot and stab her and make it look like a suicide.

He sat down next to her, not because he liked her or anything, but the idea he would have to talk to someone new was less pleasing than sitting next to a telepathic nosy little brat. Silence was what they sat in, although Carbine had a hunch that she would try to read his mind, depending on how much she could stomach it would probably be best she didn't traverse far. The minutes before class slowly started to drip, unfamiliar faces poured in. Akihiro was the first of which he did recognize and even then what little drivel he was talking about was lost on both Carbine and Mono. He sat in silence soon after next to Carbine saying something beneath his breath. Then Amid came in about five minutes before the hour.

"Carbine," Amid greeted with little pleasantry, completely disregarding Akihiro.

With one eye he looked to her with crossed arms, "Amid, I see you're here." Silence followed as the two stared at each other, scowl met by scowl. Mono kept her vision forward towards the board while Akihiro looked between the two. The four didn't even noticed Ilios being dragged in by a red haired faunus who had his burgundy dress shirt draped over his shoulders and white dress shirt.

Then the door at the front of the room slammed shut stopping all commotion.

"Alright maggots!" The voice boomed, louder than a train horn it felt. "I will be your history teacher for your tenure at Beacon Academy!"

Carbine's hand tensed, not even Amid sitting down beside Mono, or the stares that they all gave him as his hand clenched the table so hard his veins were showing and it looked like the table would crack.

He looked at his professor. Flat buzzed gray hair, face slightly tanned from being in the Vacuo campaign, a scar leaving one of his eyes a milky white in contrast to the deep brown the other one was. A dark green military jacket with a black name tag that Carbine couldn't see from his seating, but he already knew the name. His face was hard chiseled and you could almost grate cheese against or break Dust crystals on it. His strong arms and hands went to his back in a classic military stance.

"I am Professor Orwell, although some of you might know me as General Orwell, former second in command of the Combined Mantle Forces during the War."

 **-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-**

 **Now we're getting into the actual school life, and with that we get to meet the faculty of Beacon. Right now we have three; Verdant, Morgan, and Orwell, with more to come. A bit of a more light hearted chapter, minus Carbine's disposition. Now there is one thing I'm sure you're thinking is missing: Teams. As of right now, teams are not going to be happening for two reasons. One, I am going to say that the educational uses of putting students into teams happens between now and the canon timeline. An observation of years of trying out and coming up with an alternative. There will be noticeable consequences because of it, trust me. Here's to not speaking for another four months. See ya later suckers.**


	7. Chapter 6

**Author's note: Sup? Busy, busy, busy as always. Currently doing summer work for the old major, don't have much time to write, so this chapter will be a bit shorter**

 **-X-X-X-X-X-X-X**

Chapter 6: Point

Voices.

Nothing but scattered voices was what Mono 'heard', even more voices among those in the room quietly whispering among themselves. Subtly was wasted on some of these people, including Carbine off to her side. He could have been considered an animal as he bared fangs towards the straight postured former General of Mantle. Even if she did not talk she still was highly quizzical over bringing in what many here, including herself, would consider an 'enemy' up until recently. And as for Carbine, all she could read from his mind was a blinding rage, much like a grimm. Taking a deep breath she focused on Carbine, past the protective shell of his aura, the first time she had met him she was surprised by the fact he had one. She didn't think the basic foot soldiers of Mantle were given aura since they were, for all intents and purposes, seen as cannon fodder. Slipping through the cracks of his aura, she reached his consciousness, in her head it looked like a amorphous shape constantly breathing in and out rapidly. The more active the mind, the more emotional it is, the animated the consciousness reacts.

" _Why!? Why are you here!?"_ Came the resonating sounds of Carbine's mind, in Mono's head it sounded like echoes bouncing off of cavern walls late in the night. " _You couldn't just rot in that frozen wasteland!?"_

Curiouser and curiouser Carbine became the more Mono read his mind, whether he knew it or not, whether he approved of it or not. Normally she didn't bother reading most minds outside of the criminal brought in and wouldn't cooperate to the investigation. But when she overheard Carbine mentioning that he was from Mantle, and his disposition was much more antagonistic than usual she thought it would do some good to watch him. While Amid was also from the 'enemy', she hadn't displayed the same volatility that Carbine had, Amid was just a bit of a jerk at times. Carbine though, he was something of a different beast, the cool and calm suddenly replaced with fiery anger and murderous intent not just on the battlefield but also off. She had been there when Carbine fought off against the Vale soldiers when they tried to take his gun. The hatred in his eyes was something she had seen seldom times. That same eyesight firmly there as he looked towards 'Professor', not General, Orwell.

" _Carbine, whatever you are thinking, you need to calm down,"_ she told him, ignoring the glare he gave her. He didn't speak but he just narrowed his eyes at her.

" _What did I say about reading my mind?"_ His thoughts read, probably to avoid speaking aloud.

Well he certainly was a quick learner, not many realized that people could 'talk' to Mono back by using their thoughts. It was a two way connection, although they didn't get the added benefits that Mono did. In that way it was a one way connection for them, and a two way for her.

"Hold up!"

Mono certainly wasn't expecting a shout from the back, when she turned she could barely see the student due to her height. The room had silenced itself and the professor moved his gaze towards the upper row of seats. However she could make out blazing red hair, it was a male student too, he had forgone the traditional uniform and hung the blazer atop his shoulders letting it act like a cape. His white dress shirt was unbuttoned at the top showing what looked to be scales as it loosely hung off his neck. He looked like a freeloader, a lazy individual, unimportant in Mono's eyes.

"If you're the former General of Mantle, as in the one that served in the war, then shouldn't you be in a prison or something?" He asked.

Well at least he didn't appear to be stupid, but perhaps she shouldn't be too rash in her assumption.

Orwell coughed into his fist, "Yes of course, that would be natural. Technically speaking, students," the way he said it made it sound like he was annoyed by the idea, "I am not a free man, I won't be for a very long time. While I was sentenced for the rest of my life for war crimes I was given a second chance by your King of Vale. I teach at his academy, and I get a chance at parole. Make no mistake, I do not wish to teach at this academy, but if the King of Vale wishes to give me a chance, then so be it, this is much better than rotting in a cell."

Lesser of two evils, interesting, so while it appears that King has set up grandiose plans, not everyone was on board with it. At least not with their own motives.

"However, I will admit that with coming here, I am still a prisoner of war, the reason why the soldiers are here are not to protect you but to shoot me if I make any attempt of escaping. So really all I have is a comfy bed and a lesson plan to think of rather than a jail cell and handle the laundry of my cell block."

" _I will gladly shoot you if you feel inconvenienced,"_ Carbine's thoughts were easy to read and it was here that Mono thought it would be a good time to leave his mind. Not because she was scared, if anything Carbine's mind was like that of a basic brute, but because it was getting rather annoying to hear his prattle.

"Which brings us to our first lesson," Professor Orwell coughed into his fist, "as official hunters, you will not just be serving the Kingdom of Vale, Mistral, Mantle, and Vacuo individually but all of them and those outside the walls. Can anyone tell me where the term huntsman or huntress comes from?"

Orwell waited in silence as some students exchanged looks amongst themselves. He adjusted the collar of his shirt as it looked tighter than someone of his size and musculature should wear. "No one?" He questioned, a hand shot up and Orwell looked over to Mono's general direction, but not at her.

"The huntsmen and huntresses were unofficial titles given to those who could fight the grimm," to Mono's left, Amid spoke with authority and clarity.

"Correct, miss…." Orwell responded.

"Valroya," Amid replied with a roll of her eyes.

"Miss Valroya, thank you. Yes, in the years before the war the tales of huntsmen and huntresses defending those against the grimm have been around for centuries. Unlike the typical knight, or our modern soldier, the hunters were effective in small groups or in most cases worked in by themselves. They're weaponry, on occasion if they were well known, often had used dust that was infused within the metal. A technique seldom used in the emergence of firearms which use dust loaded cartridges."

Orwell walked to the chalkboard and picked up along white piece of chalk and started to scribble. "The first tales date back to the emergence of the four major kingdoms back in the times when there was still many more smaller ones. One could argue in their emergence they were more akin to bounty hunters or freelance hunters for food that would also have experience with grimm, they rarely if ever, aligned themselves with a particular kingdom. They might have traveled between three or four of the smaller kingdom with accordance to the hunting seasons, growing seasons, or accompanying caravans to other kingdoms but hunters rarely were 'bought' out. Can anyone tell me why?"

Orwell once again waited for an answer, but this time none can. Almost sickeningly, Mono could see the corner's of Orwell's mouth creep up. "Well let me tell you. It's not the fact that hunters didn't align themselves with kingdoms, some did. But what do you think happened to them?" It was a rhetorical question, and one he gave little time to let an answer be heard. "If a hunter becomes loyal to one kingdom they become an exclusive asset to that one kingdom. A fighting force that is loyal to one kingdom is called what, children?"

"A soldier," Carbine's rough voice sounded out, eyes of steel locked on to Orwell.

"Correct my boy!" Orwell sounded off with glee, "A soldier, like many of you sitting in here, you were once soldiers, you were once apart of armies, you were hunters loyal to one kingdom. It is now our job, at Beacon Academy, to reverse this process. To turn you from soldiers, into huntsmen and huntresses." Orwell chuckled, and adjusted his collar once again, "Shall we get started?"

 **-City of Vale-**

This was the big break _The Vale Times_ needed, the smell of smoke pungent as it hung like a low cloud in the main room. Typewriters clicking like mad as several people were writing for tomorrow' headline. Papers flying about like made as they flew off of desks, picked up quickly by interns, and madly put onto other worker's desks to look over for tomorrow headlines. Behind the door that read 'Editor in Chief' was a very old gentleman with a lit cigar about half way through its life, the ashtray already holding the blunted, smushed remnants of a previous cigar. His face sagged, his cheeks looking like they were holding on for dear life, his round spectacles drooped so far down his nose it looked like they might fall off with the simplest motion. The sleeves of his white collared shirt were rolled up to show his worn arms showing a lifetime of stress and freckles, a necktie that at one point in his younger career might have been black but now was an off grey. The unnatural yellow light from above only obscured from the slow circular swinging of the ceiling fan making a slight creaking noise at one spot in particular. His chair had been shaped to his aging body, once he sat up right, now it was more accustomed for his leaning posture caused by years of reading.

Tomorrow's paper was in his hand, as it was marked with tomorrow's date both in number and calendar accordance. Middle pages filled with the same humdrum such as kingdom politics, although these recent months with the new Council taking full effect later this year had made politics a hot topic and sometimes front page worthy. Other times it was usually other kingdom politics that were on the front page, Mantle and Mistral usually. With all that has been changed it would make sense. Not to mention the occasional group that decided that the war was not over would take center stage when they were crushed by any of the kingdom's military. Faunus rights were a more popular topic now too, the more the man thought about it maybe politics was always a front page issue. There was a knock at his door and he could see a silhouette, peering down to his watch which ticked away with two golden hands

"Come in," his old voice croaked out, agitated by years of smoking and shouting at interns.

The door opened and revealed a young female, perhaps twenty five at the very most, she quickly closed it. She was a lithe girl, slim legs, slim waist. Her face graceful but with pointed features and the lightest application of makeup enhanced the way she looked. A pale purple skirt suit wrapped around her small, thin body, in her hands a clipboard. Her pale purple hair tied in a bun kept in place by a ballpoint pen contrasted from her pale white face and dirt brown eyes.

"You wished to see me Mr. Lavender?" She asked.

Barely moving the newspaper down just so his eyes could make contact with her for a moment before it was brought up. "I suppose," Mr. Lavender replied, "you've been at my newspaper for how long Miss Chronicle?"

Sarah Chronicle looked up and thought on it, "Four years Mr. Lavender."

"You've been doing what now? Basic secretary work, sorting stories, taking calls, and the like?"

"Yes, Mr. Lavender."

"Hmm, hmm, I see, newspaper sales have been down since the end of the war," he said, straightening out the pages as they started to teater on itself. "Small little economic downturn, soldiers looking for jobs, rise in unemployment, people make small cuts on amenities they can't afford. Newspapers are one of those things."

"I see sir," Sarah replied, feeling a bit of dread from his tone.

"Newspapers aren't free, they cost money to print, to buy ink, to get the paper, to pay reporters, typewriters, and keep the lights on. At the end of a day we're a business, we need to sell advertising and newspapers."

"Yes sir."

The editor in chief let go of one page to sprinkle off some ash into the tray below. "The smart business owner would cut costs down, maybe downsize or charge more for advertising. The shareholders told me the same ideas yesterday, but I told them they could stick their non existent money up their whiny old asses." Finally he let the paper fall down to look at Miss Chronicle's utterly confused face. "Something big happened in the kingdom that up until a few weeks ago no one knew about. The king set up some sort of training facility on the outskirts of the kingdom past the Emerald Forest. They sent us a letter asking if one of our field reporters wanted to travel over there in a few weeks to do a tell-all on it. Normally, I would send Anderson or Cooper, but they're both on vacation so I'm gonna send you."

Sarah's face beamed with a wide smile of that like a toddler given a lollipop, she began to vibrate with excitement on the spot but was stopped by Lavender's hand.

"Do. Not. Squeal," he said slowly, he wasn't even looking at her but he knew, "my hearing is already shot enough as it is. You'll leave in a few weeks, maybe a month, getting there is supposedly tricky even though it's pretty close. This is also to be kept secret from any of your friends and family, consider yourself under NDA from this moment."

"Yes sir," she nodded quickly with a smile.

"We've been given exclusive access to this, no other news organization has this scoop. So keep your lips sealed, don't even tell people in this buildings. Now get going, this meeting never happened."

"Yes sir," quickly she turned around with a smile plastered across her face.

With a sigh Lavender shook the paper back upright and continued reading tomorrow's edition.

" _*Squeeeeeee*_ :"

At least she waited until she was out of the room, now it only hurt his hearing a little.

 **-Beacon Academy-**

The only time you would know that there was almost one hundred students at Beacon Academy would be during the lunch period. The mess hall, cafeteria, or lunch room; whatever the collection of students referred to it as, was also not made for how many people it was holding. Lynae found it incredibly cramped, stuffy, and the food was subpar. The bread was dry, the vegetables were just sad looking, and the meat was lukewarm by now. The tray it all sat in clanked as she walked behind Oro, who was walking behind Ilios. When Oro had introduced her to the insect faunus he did so by pretending there was an infestation around and then pointed him out.

She wasn't sure if it was slightly racist or incredibly racist.

He seemed fine, although that could have been because it was early in the morning and they had a history class. It was not that history was boring it was just….yeah history was boring. Professor, or General, Orwell could talk for hours, in fact that's what he did. Almost three hours passed before the bell finally rang, three long arduous hours.

"Okay, just a second," Ilios said followed by his usual clicking, Lynae had been thankful he hadn't been doing it during class. If he did it would only accelerate the timeline of her going made between him and Orwell, "He should be here somewhere." It didn't help he was a little on the short side, even Lynae who was average height had a good few inches on him, and that wasn't even acknowledging Oro who could probably rest his arm on his head like a stool.

Speaking of, the lizard faunus ahead of her seemed to be examining his food with great curiosity, if he had been sitting he might have poked with a fork to see if it was still alive. It was voted on that he would be between Ilios and herself since he seemed to get distracted by everything. Even light fixtures perplexed him for a few minutes. Perhaps he too was actually some kind of insect faunus but just in disguise. He also had a habit for speaking and talking quite a lot, he spoke first in Orwell's class and under his breath he seemed to make side comments. Although what they were she had no idea.

"Ah-hah, there he is," Ilios spoke pointing to someone in the crowd, "Akihiro!"

The group of three rushed to a group of four situated at the table. Two females, two males. Lynae immediately noticed the smiling bear faunus waving back to them. He was tall, not too massive or overly muscular. Then she noticed the two females. Even when Ilios, Oro, and herself st down she didn't stop to spare a glance at her and instead kept her gaze forward towards the mass of people, black hair in a bob cut. The other looked her way and kept her gaze towards Oro, she seemed much more….reactive and spared a barely passable greeting with a silent handwave.

"Well, Ilios, why don't you introduce us to these lovely people to us," Akihiro, she assumed, said with a pleasant smile. At least he seemed normal enough.

"Oh, yeah," Ilios coughed into his fist, "this is Lynae Kyanos, and the one looking at his food is Oro."

"Huh, what-what, my name was mentioned?" Oro suddenly sparked to life, dropping his fork although because of the structural integrity of the meat it stayed upright. Slightly worrying. When he looked up he was met by new faces, "Oh, I appear to have missed introductions, apologies."

"Not at all," Akihiro waved off, "I'm Akihiro." He then motioned his hand over to two women beside him. Oddly enough there was an open seat between Akihiro and the black haired girl.

From the far side, the silver haired girl smiled more like a normal girl in this not so normal environment , "I'm Amid Valroya, pleasure to meet you."

The other girl, however did not make a move, staring into the open. There was an awkward silence so much that Oro got into her field of view, but that didn't work. "Is she….broken or something? Is she supposed to do that?" He asked.

"No, it's just that Mono isn't paying damn attention," came a more deeper, gruffer voice.

Mono was soon jolted by a swift pale hand smacking her in the back of the head. When she looked up she saw, Carbine's face scowling back at her. Immediately Lynae did not like him, he had this edge about him, this aura of hostility. There just seem to be something that made a few hairs stand on end. Mono, as Lynae had been told, simply scowled at Carbine and shook off the slap.

"Mono doesn't like to talk much, but she's a rather annoying telepath," Carbine informed as he sat down with a ray of food. He sat across Oro, Lyan sat from Mono, and Ilios across from Akihiro.

"Her name is Mono?" Oro questioned.

"Her full name is Mono Chrome."

Oro paused in confusion, not even the questionable food could distract him, "Her name is Mono Chrome?"

"Yes."

"As in?"

"Color movement," Carbine answered.

"Man you civilized types and your naming schemes," the answer seemed sufficient for Oro's taste, even he knew of the ideological revolutions of the kingdoms

"Umm, you're just listed off as Oro, you don't even have a last name."

"Oh, how funny, Carbine hates being called by his first name," Akihiro said, "together you guys could make a full one."

The group looked to Carbine who avoided eye contact by keeping his eyes closed while eating some off his tray. "I have my reasons."

"See?" Oro glanced over to Lynae, "He gets it."

Just from her initial reaction, Lynae was rather wary of likening anyone to this Carine fellow. That sixth sense of hers just going wild when she looked at him. Oro though didn't seem to care too much.

"So mister last name," he joked, "where you from?"

Carbine slowed his chewing and cracked an eye to star back at Oro. " _Lizard faunus,"_ were his immediate thoughts as he looked at him.

He coughed twice into his fist, "I'm from Mantle."

To Carbine's surprise though it wasn't Oro who made a look of shock, in fact he seemed more intrigued, but it was Lynae who was taken slightly aback.

"Oh, that is very interesting, I never met anyone from Mantle," Oro replied.

"Probably for the better," Carbine shot back carving another piece of the dried meat, his eyes gone back.

"What did you do in Mantle?" He asked.

This time Carbine spared a glance over to Akihiro who shrugged in response, then over to Mono who just stared back at him. The two stayed like that for a brief but noticeably long period. "I was a soldier in the army."

Oro's mouth opened for another question but the slam of the wooden doors caught the attention of everyone. Two soldiers, followed by a more decorated officer stepped into view. "Would Miss Kyanos and Oro please come with us!" He barked out while standing at attention.

The two looked at each other, Oro shrugged at her. What was he supposed to know? He didn't do anything against the rules, at least hopefully. The two stood up and the entire lunchroom stared at them as they walked away. When the door slammed the lunch resumed, Carbine really hadn't looked so he just kept eating.

"Soooo," Ilios said, to Carbine and Mono's surprise he had stayed remarkably silent, "what did you think?"

"They seem pretty chill," Akihiro said, "I like them."

"Oro's kind of funny," Amid told him. In all honesty, Ilios had been surprised, back in the forest she had been so much more serious and….scary.

All eyes fell to Carbine, the group had accepted that Mono just didn't speak. They didn't know of her telepathic abilities. Or at least Amid may have, Carbine wasn't sure quite yet. Following the whims of the group he sighed.

"The faunus girl, she's fine," Carbine grunted.

"Her name's Lynae," Ilios had corrected.

"Sure, whatever." he blew off, "That Oro guy?" Carbine to some credit he actually did pause to think about it.

"I absolutely despise him."

 **-X-**

Monet looked out the window looking at the courtyard of Beacon Academy, a small grassy field filled with flowers. A fountain with several benches surrounding it, the sun making it picturesque view that only spoke to the elaborate construction of the academy. The only issue: she never remembered getting to the academy, she remembered being overwhelmed by a sudden ambush of grimm back in the forest. She remembered how she escaped momentarily as a small butterfly flew onto the windowsill, its wings slowly fluttering. Her wounds were pretty much non-existent, aura was truly a magnificent little gift for that. Doctor Verdant, the head medical personnel, had explained she had been brought to here by some students. Naturally she had asked to see them along with a chance thank them for saving her.

"Hey! Hey, wait for us to check in with Dr. Verdant!" A rushed, harsh voice shouted from the other side of the wall.

"Oh, please what's the harm? What's the worst I could do?" Came a much more relaxed and jovial voice. The sudden thud spooked her a little, as did the rushing of the door as it was swung open hittin the backside of the wall. "Well I'll be a boarbatusk's uncle, you are awake! Thank the gods for that!"

To say she was not expecting someone like Oro to come bursting through the door would have been a massive understatement, not even in her top one thousand. When Lynae came walking in and smacked the fellow faunus once again she relaxed more. "Don't scare her, that last thing she needs is you barging in here and giving her a heart attack."

"Oh, Lynae you're such a worry wart," Oro chided by pinching her chin which Lynae certainly did not enjoy judging by her facial expression, "your face might get stuck like that."

"I am sorry for Oro, all that Vacuo sun really got to his head," Lynae smacked his arm away, and then punched him in the nose all with a smile on her face. "I'm Lynae Kyanos, you've already gotten your weekly dose of Oro."

Monet just sort of stared at the sight before her, mainly Oro clutching his nose after Lynae socked one right to him. "Uhh…" she quietly said, "Oh, right where are my manners. I'm Monet. Monet Linda, I suppose I should thank you for saving me in the Emerald Forest."

"Don't worry about it," Lynae waved it off, "just helping someone in need."

"Funny," Oro stood beside Lynae holding his nose a little, "I didn't see you carry her for miles and hours during that period. I don't think you even offered."

"You calling her fat?" Lynae asked bluntly.

"She's at least lighter than you," within another second Oro was back on the ground after Lynae punched him again, a little harder too, in the nose. "Son of a pickle farmer!"

"Forgive him, he's an idiot."

"Uhh…" Monet started.

"We were told you were being discharged today, once you're dressed we can give you a tour," Lynae offered.

Monet stared at her, then slightly off to the side towards the lizard faunus nursing his nose on the ground.

"Don't worry I'll keep him line," Lynae was two steps ahead of her.

"I guess," Monet replied.

Lynae walked over to the white wooden closet and in it revealed a girl's uniform, "Excellent. Oro, leave."

"What?" He managed pinching his nose, "Why?"

"You saying you want to watch her change?"

"I grew up in a recluse tribe in Vacuo, it was only natural I saw the female body in all aspects of all ages," Oro's comment not only made Monet's face light up bright red, but also Lynae's to the point where she stopped functioning.

"Okay," Lynae said slowly as she got up, as she walked over to Oro she grabbed him by the collar "we're gonna have a talk."

"Is this going to be an actual talk or one of those sessions where you tell me not to do something?" Oro asked, from his casualness this appeared to be a regular occurence.

"You tell me?" She said with this sick smile on her face as she dragged Oro out of the room. She pulled her head back in the room as Monet held the uniform, "Just come on out when you get done changing., I'll handle him."

Monet stared at her uniform shirt and then back at the door and shrugged. She turned to the butterfly that was still on the windowsill, "Welcome to Beacon I guess."

 **-Location: Undisclosed Vale Communications Center-**

"Sir, we've received reports that another ship has gone missing in the south Vistral Ocean."

"Another?! Gah! How many does this make?"

"Fifteen sir. Some of the kingdom's trade unions are demanding for an answer. Should we release a statement?"

"No, we have no idea who is doing this and why, if we go public now we could stoke anti-peace sentiments. Even if this isn't another kingdom they might be blamed for it by some of the more reckless officers."

"Sir we did retrieve what looks to be final transmission from the VSS Opal, no one's listened to it yet."

"Play it boy, close the doors, leave afterwards."

"Yes sir."

There was a prolonged pause as the sound of locks clicking and footsteps slowly getting quieter and quieter. Then a click on the recorder.

" _-kzzt- Hel -kzzt- Hello, this should be -kzzt- king now. Ahem, I prepared a speech for you treacherous kingdom dogs. This ocean is mine, from the far southern shore of the continent of Sanus to the far northern tip of Anima. Any and all trade vessels, civilian or not, will be shot down, their riches plunder, and all passengers will be eradicated. Think of this as your punishment for the abandonment of all the sailors lost during your abysmal war. For the angry souls of those sailors now walk my ship's deck waiting for their revenge. And at the helm will be I, Captain Marrow. And if you're thinking of sending some elite force after me, let them try, I can always use more of the damned souls you send to their death on my ship."_

 **-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-**

 **Not much to report here, outside of spooky pirates. As I mentioned, a bit of a shorter one, kind of skimped on Monet's intro but then again I have spent literally three chapters alluding to her. There'll be more on her in the next chapter whenever that gets written. See ya later suckers.**

 **Credits**

 **Jermiah Carbine- chronoman**

 **Oro- chronoman**

 **Akihiro Cedar- Avis B**

 **Amid Valroya- DeathTheManiac**

 **Mono Chrome- ObieSenpai**

 **Lynae Kyanos- Fool Arcana Kaiju**

 **Ilios Sand- ObligatoryCoolName**

 **Monet Linda- ElectircalZats**


End file.
